“Did the other assessors know you’d killed her?”
“They may have suspected. I don’t know. When Selena’s candy poisoned us but not her, I thought she’d caught on. She hadn’t, of course.”
“How did you lure Tillie up to the attic?”
“That was easy. During lunchtime when everyone was gone, we went up there together to look up some records. She had her back turned. I put my hands around her throat and throttled her. It’s quite easy, you know. I thought her body would mummify in that dry environment, and it did.” Ellen untied her shoes, slipped them off, and eased her torn sweatpants over her bandaged ankle.
“Why did you kill Lucy, Lambert’s mother-in-law?”
“Like most people in town, she thought Tillie had run off with that Edgartown man. When she ran into him at the Stop and Shop a couple of weeks ago, she asked about Tillie, and he had no idea what she was talking about.” Ellen selected a pair of slacks and slipped into them, then gently pulled on clean socks and shoes.
“We understood you were off Island at the dentist’s when Lucy was killed.”
“That was the only tricky killing to work out.” Ellen sat back in her chair. “I actually did have a dental appointment. I told Lucy I had an emergency dental appointment, and would be staying overnight in Falmouth. I asked her to take care of Adolph. I took the early ferry to Woods Hole, but returned to the Island on the very next boat. It was still early when I arrived home. She was in the pantry I don’t think she even heard me. I strangled her with her own scarf. Then I took the next ferry to Woods Hole, went to the dentist, stayed overnight, and you know the rest.”
“If you’re ready,” said Victoria, getting up from her chair, “we’d better go, Ellen. They’re waiting outside for us.”
CHAPTER 38
A week later, Victoria and Howland were in the cookroom, drinking coffee and talking about the murders. Victoria sorted her mail and was slitting it open.
“Sad, isn’t it.” Victoria put the letter opener down and stirred her coffee. “Ellen Meadows got caught up in a scheme too good to pass up. As a result, three people are dead.”
“I’ll never understand how one human being can kill another,” said Howland.
“She was trained to kill. She was awarded medals for killing the right people. Now she’ll spend the rest of her life in prison.” She showed Howland a bill from the tax collector. “How can anyone afford to live here?”
“I think they’ll be adjusting the bills downwards, thanks to you, Victoria.”
She set the bill aside. “Whatever good reputations Selena, Ocypete, and Oliver had are gone forever. No one will ever trust them again. They, too, will go to prison for a long time. What will become of Lambert Willoughby?”
“He has to return all the money plus interest, and he’ll be on probation until he does,” said Howland.
“You knew Darcy from your work, didn’t you?”
“I knew who he was,” said Howland. “Emery Meyer. I suppose everyone in clandestine operations knows of him.”
“Darcy told me Senator Hammermill sent both him and the pilot to get evidence of Henry’s chicanery.” Victoria removed a check from an envelope and laid it next to the tax bill. “Another one of my poems was accepted. I’ll need to write a few more.”
“Why didn’t she tell Darcy up front?”
“That’s what Darcy said. Apparently she wanted them to work independently.”
“Henry thought Darcy was from the mob, here to kill him. He’ll feel safer in prison,” said Howland. “Have you talked to Delilah lately? What’s she going to do now that her property’s been repossessed?”
Victoria tossed a catalog into the trash. “This company sends me one every month. I refuse to do business with them. Waste, waste.”
“Delilah?” asked Howland.
“She’ll be fine. The town is leasing her house back to her at a fair rate,” said Victoria. “She’s opening a bed and breakfast with help from Lee, and the planning board approved a petting farm with chickens and fainting goats.” She tore up a sheaf of checks from her credit card company and tossed the pieces toward the trash. “Jordan gave her some honesty seeds. He told her honesty was invasive, so she had Darcy scatter them in front of Town Hall.”
“Has Darcy left yet?” asked Howland.
Victoria raised her head and listened. She could imagine his voice. “We have a lot in common, you know. He’ll be back,” she said with assurance.
“You and your bad boys.” Howland got up from the table. “Let me have your mug. I’ll put it in the sink.”
Victoria followed him to the door. The sun was shining. Daffodils and forsythia were in bright, full bloom. A hundred or more blackbirds caroled from the maple tree. Spring had come to the Island.
Howland and she stood at the top of the stone steps admiring the fresh new world.
“Elections are coming up in a couple of weeks,” said Howland, turning to her with a grin. “We have vacancies for three assessors and a tax collector. How about running for office, Victoria? You’re a shoo-in.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to all of you who have become friends of Victoria Trumbull through libraries, bookstores, and borrowing from fellow readers. I love getting your letters and e-mails. Victoria is very much alive to me, and I gather she is to you, too. She’ll stay ninety-two forever, which she claims is her best year so far.
Jonathan Revere continues to feed me ideas for writing my way out of the outrageous situations Victoria gets herself into. And, if it weren’t for Arlene Silva and the Vermont College MFA program, Victoria would never have realized her sleuthing talent.
It’s become a tradition to put up for auction to fund scholarships at Vermont College a weekend at the Cleaveland House bed-and-breakfast, plus having one’s name in the next Victoria Trumbull book. Mindy LePere won the honor this time, and makes an appearance as a nurse. She had no choice about her character. At least she’s not a villain.
Little did Jordan Ronson know when he first sat at the cookroom table and shared his woes with me about a neighbor’s psychotic rooster, that he and the rooster would become an integral part of the book. Thanks to both you and Chickee, whose name has been changed to protect the innocent.
Here are some of the many people who’ve helped me with my writing, researching, editing, critiquing, and hand-holding. From the Howes House writers there are longtime members Jackie Sexton, Shirley Mayhew, Jeanne Hewett, and Ethel Sherman. There’s poet and birder Sally Williams, photographer/publisher Valerie Sonnenthal, author Ernie Weiss—read his cliff-hanging escape book Out of Vienna—Nelson Potter, computer genius Ed Housman, Gerry Jackman Dean, Rabbi Carla Theodore, artist Barbara Moment, and musician Charles Blank. From the Sunday Night Writers there’s Carolyn O’Daly, whose essays are sure to be picked up by National Public Radio, Rev. Bonna-Whitten Stovall, who writes of Mississippi and Southern Baptists, Rev. Judy Campbell, working on her third mystery, sailor and company starterupper Geoff Parkhurst, and Elissa Lash, who makes the life of an ecdysiast both poignant and hilarious. I hope I haven’t forgotten any of you.
Thanks to Alvida and Ralph Jones and to Ann and Bill Fielder who’ve gone over every one of my manuscripts.
Most of all, thanks to Nancy Love, my agent; and Ruth Cavin, Editor, and Toni Plummer, Associate Editor, who work long and patient hours at Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press.
Thank you all.
An explanation may be needed. Martha’s Vineyard is one of eleven islands in the County of Dukes County. Redundant, I know, but that’s the way it is. Hence we have the County Sheriff of the County of Dukes County.
OTHER MARTHA’S VINEYARD MYSTERIES
Shooting Star
Indian Pipes
The Paperwhite Narcissus
Jack in the Pulpit
The Cemetery Yew
The Cranefly Orchid Murders
Deadly Nightshade
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, org
anizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DEATH AND HONESTY. Copyright © 2009 by Cynthia Riggs.
All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
First Edition: May 2009
A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.minotaurbooks.com
eISBN 9781429937535
First eBook Edition : August 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Riggs, Cynthia.
Death and honesty : a Martha’s Vineyard mystery / Cynthia Riggs.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35605-7
ISBN-10: 0-312-56705-7
1. Trumbull, Victoria (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Older women—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Real estate appraisers—Fiction. 5. Rich people—Fiction. 6. Martha’s Vineyard (Mass.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3681.I394D45 2009
813’.6—dc22
2009003620
Death and Honesty Page 23