by Myers, Tim
I stowed the suitcase and garment bag in my trunk, then tried to figure out what had happened to Sharon. Where could she be? After our earlier conversation, I had a hard time believing that she’d just bug out like that. Then I remembered what she’d said. Sharon had felt guilty about how expensive Jean’s place was, and she’d threatened to move out to the Mountain Lake Motel on her own.
At least it was worth a shot, since I had nowhere else to look for her.
THε daytime desk clerk didn’t even need a bribe to tell me Sharon was there. He even gave me her room number without demanding a payoff. I decided he needed lessons in graft and extortion, but I was glad he hadn’t had any yet.
Sharon looked surprised to see me when I knocked on her door. “Hi, Ben. Come on in. I was just about to call so I could check in with you.”
The décor of the room appeared to be made up of the castoffs from every other midpriced motel in the country. Everything, from the dresser to the desk to the headboard, had an old, used, banged-up look, not that anyone would ever mistake the furnishings for antiques.
“How did you find me?” she asked as she sat on the bed, leaving me the one chair in the room.
“I went by Jean’s and she told me you were gone. You didn’t have to leave so abruptly.”
“Please, I know exactly how much those rooms cost. I wasn’t about to stick you with another night’s stay on my bill.” She looked around the rundown room and somehow managed to say, “This is fine. At least for now.”
“I have to admit, for a minute there, I thought you were gone for good.”
She looked startled by the idea. “I’m not leaving until the police make an arrest. I told you that.”
“A great many people have been telling me a lot of things lately, but you’re the only one who seems to be standing by your word.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know how else to be. So, what can I do for you? I’d offer you a drink, but there doesn’t seem to be a minibar here.”
“There are a few things I’d like to talk to you about, but there’s no easy way to ask the questions I want answered.”
She smiled. “Heavens, don’t worry about offending me. I’m a big girl, I can take it.”
“First off, I understand your employer had two male visitors while she was staying at the bed-and-breakfast.”
Sharon shook her head. “That’s why I like the anonymity of a motel. Nobody cares who comes and goes.”
“Did you know that Connie had visitors?”
“Of course I did,” she said. “Their arguments would have been hard to miss hearing.”
“What were they fighting about?”
Sharon idly played with the bedspread, and I saw part of it start to unravel. “What does anyone ever fight about? It was love, from the sound of it.”
“Do you know who came by?”
“I couldn’t miss them; my door was wide open. First Barry came by. He wanted to reconcile, but she wasn’t having any of it. Then he started getting nasty, and she threw him out.”
“Funny, he told me they were getting back together.”
Sharon laughed. “I highly doubt that. Once Connie was finished with a man, that was it. That was what was so odd about the cop who came by. He hadn’t given up, either.”
“Did you know about him?”
Sharon nodded, then stood and started pacing the room. “She showed me a photograph once and told me that Brian Ross was her first love. He wanted to rekindle things with her, but she actually laughed in his face when he suggested it.”
“Why didn’t you say anything about this when we talked before?”
She looked contrite. “I was trying to keep them both out of it through some misguided sense of loyalty I had to Connie. I’m sorry I misled you.”
“That leads me to my second line of questioning,” I said. “I’ve heard that you were much more to Connie than just her assistant. In fact, there’s a rumor going around that you’re mentioned prominently in her will and that she fired you.”
I was looking for some kind of reaction, but her laughter wasn’t the one I’d expected. “Ben, she fired me at least three times a week. Connie had a pretty volatile disposition, so I’d learned to take it in stride. She never failed to apologize the next day whenever she took her frustrations out on me.”
That made sense, knowing what I did about the woman. “How about the will? Do you inherit her fortune?”
“I wouldn’t know about that,” Sharon said abruptly.
“But you told me everything she did was filtered through you,” I pushed. “Wouldn’t you know exactly what was in her will?”
“Not that,” Sharon said. “Connie’s personal documents were out of bounds for me. Frankly, I don’t give much merit to the rumor that I’m inheriting anything. It was made clear enough that my only pay was for the job I performed.” As she stared out the window, she added, “Why don’t they just arrest Betsy Blair and be done with it? There’s no doubt in my mind she killed Connie.”
“How can you be so certain, especially with so many other people around who wished her ill?”
Sharon snorted. “You should have seen the way she confronted Connie here. When Betsy left, she had pure hatred in her eyes.”
“I talked to her earlier, and she seemed pretty sane to me. She makes a strong case for her point of view.”
That seemed to enrage Sharon. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re a soapmaker, but you obviously don’t know anything about writing.”
“What I saw looked pretty solid,” I said.
“You’re wrong,” she said. “Hang on a second.” As she dug through her oversized briefcase, she said, “I found a copy of Betsy’s manuscript in Connie’s suitcase. What she told me before was true. It’s terrible.”
“And that’s the first time you saw it?” If Sharon had acted as Connie Brown’s filter, it appeared that a great deal got past her.
Sharon frowned. “I told you already. Betsy got around me somehow and gave it directly to Connie. I kept telling her she couldn’t accept anything from strangers, especially manuscripts, but sometimes she did it anyway. Here it is.”
Sharon thrust a thin sheaf of pages at me. It appeared they’d been created on an aging manual typewriter. The impact of each letter varied from nearly piercing the page to barely skimming it, and the ribbon had probably been new thirty years ago. It only took me a second to realize the two documents I’d seen—both sworn to be Betsy’s manuscript—were vastly different. So which one was legitimate?
“This isn’t the one I saw,” I admitted. “Could this version have been faked?”
She snatched it out of my hands. “Are you accusing Connie of something, Ben? I won’t have you speaking ill of her, do you hear me?”
“I’m not accusing anyone of anything. Would you mind if I borrowed that? I want to show it to Molly.”
She shook her head and stowed it back in her briefcase. “Sorry, but if Betsy still decides to sue, I need it as evidence of just how different this and Connie’s book is. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m a little tired right now.”
“Of course,” I said. Her dismissal was pointed and cool: a rapid descent from the warmth of our earlier conversation. Could that manuscript be the key to the murder? I wanted to see it again, but it didn’t look like I’d get that chance without Molly by my side, and I didn’t see that happening anytime soon. Speaking of Molly, I wondered if there was any way I could get her to tell me what Connie’s will said. If I asked her outright, she’d probably laugh in my face. But what if I brought her some information she didn’t already have? I could pass off my acquisition of the knowledge coming from a casual conversation with Sharon, though I doubted it would fool Molly. Still, I had to try. It wouldn’t do to call her on her cell phone, though. I’d have to wait until I saw her again, and given the state of her relationship with my brother, the best place to find her was probably at the soap shop, so I decided to head back there.
When I walked back into
Where There’s Soap, Kate handed me a note. “You need to call this guy back. He sounded pretty upset. What did you do, Ben?”
“Now how could I possibly answer that unless you’re a lot more specific than that with your question? I’ve done any number of things to make people mad in the last few days alone. Sometimes it feels like that’s all I ever manage to do.”
Kate patted my cheek. “At least you’re really good at it.”
I looked at the message, but there was just a phone number on it.
“Kate, who exactly was it that called me?”
“He wouldn’t give his name,” she said. “I asked.”
“Fine, I’ll call him back in a little bit.”
“I wouldn’t wait too long,” she said. “Just from my little time on the telephone with him, I don’t think he’s somebody you want to make mad.”
I tucked the note in my pocket and went in back to look for Jeff. Jim and Bob were working on the line, making a run of lavender soaps poured in flower molds.
“You guys have the most delicate touch,” I said as they pulled soaps from their molds.
Jim snapped, “That’s enough out of you, girlie man.”
“What’s your problem?” I asked him.
Jim explained, “This lunatic actually thinks we should branch out into more spa treatments than Kate suggested, and now you’re standing there making fun of my lavender soap. If I had the chance, I’d trade both of you dead even for a car, and then I’d leave it running with the keys in it.”
Bob patted Jim on the back. “He’s got such a sweet spirit, doesn’t he?”
“It’s underwhelming,” I said. “Have you two seen Jeff lately?”
Jim looked at his watch. “He’s late. Having lunch with that ex-girlfriend of yours again. I can’t believe how well you’re taking the two of them dating.” Was it my imagination, or was he disappointed with my reaction?
“Hey, live and let live, you know? As far as I’m concerned, she’s not my anything anymore. She and Jeff are starting off fresh, and if something comes of it, they both have my blessing. When they get back, tell Molly I need to talk to her, okay?”
“Sure,” Bob said, then he turned to Jim. “Listen, just try the hand lotion. It’s great. Feel how soft my hands are already.”
Jim said, “When you see me with an earring, an eye patch, and a parrot on my shoulder, then I’ll try your hand cream.”
“It’s not mine,” Bob protested. “It’s some of the stuff we made with Kate.”
“You’re wasting your breath,” Jim said.
Bob looked at me and said, “Come on, Ben, tell him he can still be manly and use this stuff.”
“You’re not dragging me into this.”
“Coward,” Bob said.
“I’d say he’s smart,” Jim replied.
Kate came hurrying back. I said, “Come here a second, we want you to settle whether it’s manly or not to use hand lotion.”
She didn’t rise to the bait. “Ben, did you call that man back?”
“No, I just got here, remember?”
She frowned. “Well, you don’t have to worry about returning his phone call now. He’s in the shop, and he’s demanding to see you.”
I peeked out the door and saw Barry Hill standing near the register with a look of anger on his face. Kate snuck up beside me, with my brothers close behind us both.
“He looks pretty ticked,” Jim said. “You want some company?”
“I can handle him,” I said.
Bob put a hand on my shoulder. “If you need us, use a code word and we’ll come running. Now what should we use?”
Jim said, “How about, ‘This guy’s getting ready to kick my fanny.’ That works for me.”
Kate said, “I can tell him you’re not here if you’d like me to. That might give him a chance to cool off.”
“No, I’ll talk to him.”
As I approached Connie’s most recent ex-fiancé, I said, “I hear you’re looking for me.”
“Why didn’t you return my call?”
“I just got here,” I said as I noticed we were garnering some unhealthy attention. “You want to talk about this outside?”
“Is that a threat?” he asked coldly.
“No, it’s an invitation to not make a fool out of yourself in front of our customers. If you want to talk to me, I’ll be out on the front porch.” Maybe I should have stayed where my brothers could help if things did get ugly, but I didn’t care. At least if we were both outside, I could shout right back at him, something I was reticent to do in the shop.
He was right on my heels as I stepped outside.
“Where do you get off lying to me?”
I spun around and saw that his fists were clinched.
“I never lied to you,” I said. While that wasn’t technically true, it was close enough to the spirit of our conversation before to allow me to say it with a straight face.
“You knew who I was all along. After you left, a cop showed up, and I started thinking about how much of a coincidence that was. I started asking around about you, and it didn’t take long to track you down.”
“So you found me. Why did you want to see me? Did you want to confess to killing Connie? You really should talk to the police about that. I’m sure Molly would be happy to listen to you.”
Without warning, he grabbed my shirt with both hands and threw me back against one of the porch supports. The man was stronger than he looked, and there was a sudden violence in his manner that shook me more than I would have ever admitted.
“Get your hands off me,” I said as calmly as I could.
“What are you going to do if I don’t?”
“Can you really afford to get into any more trouble than you already are?”
That eased his grip some. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re right, I told Molly where you were. Believe me, she was going to come looking for you pretty soon anyway, and it would have been a lot harder on you if you’d tried to run. You should be thanking me. I did you a favor.”
“Some favor,” he said as he released his grip. “You put the law on me.”
I straightened out my shirt. “You really should do something about that temper of yours.”
“Don’t push your luck,” he said.
Too bad I was never any good at taking orders. “Is that how you acted around Connie the other night? I heard you two had a fight. Did it turn physical, too? That seems to be the way you deal with your problems.”
“We were going to reconcile,” he repeated softly. “Do you want to know what we were fighting about? It was your girlfriend.”
“How do you even know who my girlfriend is?”
He laughed harshly. “Connie didn’t have any trouble figuring that out. That’s why she was here, to make amends with Diana Long. They’d already met once the minute she got into town, and they were supposed to get together again after Connie’s talk at your little soap store. I told her it was too dangerous, but she insisted that she had to do it to find some peace. I never would have hurt her.”
“Not on purpose, I’m sure,” I said, though I wasn’t sure of that at all. His accusation that Diana was somehow involved threw me, but I kept pushing. “I understand if it was an accident. You got mad, and before you realized what you were doing, she was dead.”
He tried to grab me again, but I knocked his hand away this time.
Molly came out onto the porch. As she opened the door, she said, “Ben, I heard you were looking for me.” Then she noticed Barry Hill’s clenched fists, and mine. “What’s going on out here?”
“We were just chatting,” I said, trying to will my fists to ease.
“Sure, I believe that,” Molly said. She looked at Barry. “I’ve been looking all over for you. We need to have another talk.”
“Now’s not a good time for me,” he said as he continued to stare at me.
“That’s too bad, because it’s perfect for me. I’m parked around back
. Come on, let’s go around the building.”
“Fine,” he finally said, and turned away from me.
“We can talk later, too,” I said.
Molly said, “Oh, don’t worry about that. We will.”
“I was talking to him,” I said, pointing at Barry.
Molly rolled her eyes, and Barry Hill didn’t react at all.
I was about to go back inside when I saw some movement on the other side of the street. It was just for a second, but I could swear I saw Brian Ross scurry into the bushes.
Without pausing to consider the consequences, I crossed the street and said, “You might as well come out. I already saw you.”
After a few seconds, the cop came out, a look of anger on his face. I was having that effect on a lot of people lately, but that was just too bad.
“How long have you been watching?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought I spotted a wallet in the bushes, so I went in after it.”
“Sure,” I said, not even trying to hide the fact that I didn’t believe him. “So if you were just walking along, why didn’t you stop Barry Hill when he had me pinned against the post?”
“Sorry, I didn’t see a thing. It must have happened before I got here,” he said.
“Enough of this. You were following one of us. Which one are you after?”
Officer Ross shrugged. “Why would I suspect you of anything?”
“So you were tailing Hill,” I said. “I’m curious. Did Connie ask you to keep your eye on him when you were in her room the other night?”
Ross looked at me through hardened eyes. “Now who’s tailing who?”
“I’m not following anybody around,” I said, though that again wasn’t strictly the entire truth. “But this is a small town. People talk. So, what were you and Connie fighting about?”