Then who was on the floor, drugged and moaning?
“More company,” said Tony. “Should get interesting.”
“She’s not waking up, Mary,” a panicky Bill said.
The elegant Anne is Mary? Bill’s dead wife?
“You fool. You injected too much,” she spat out angrily. “But at this point, who cares. They are all going.”
Going where?
Her familiar shoes then hearing her voice again in front of me confirmed it. Nevertheless I was shocked.
Always expect the unexpected.
I still couldn’t believe it when I said, “...Anne?”
Chapter 55
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
“Anne?” said Tony. “Then who is on the floor?”
“Me,” said a weak voice from where Bill was crouched. He shone his light on her face.
Tony and I twisted ourselves and saw Marilyn weakly smiling up at us.
“You dodged a bullet on that one,” Tony said to Bill.
We heard a laugh and turned back to Anne. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, derisively. “Time’s run out for you all.”
“Because either way we’re dead meat,” said Tony flatly.
“How astute you are, my dear man,” said Anne.
Tony shrugged. “So what’s the plan, Anne?”
“I hope it’s a long-range one,” I muttered.
I glanced at the three players in this, reflected in the two flashlights that now illuminated the whole area around us. We seemed to be in a cemented, cinder-block room. As I had guessed, there were no windows.
Bill saw me checking out the space. “It’s a soundproof safe room. Crude, but nice, huh?” he asked, proudly.
“If you’re into kidnapping people,” remarked Tony.
“Is this your first venture into that field?” I added.
We had to keep them talking if we were to figure out a way to escape. Right now Tony and I were helpless, trussed as we were. If we were to get ourselves free, we had to make our move, but right now there was little we could do, except to stall for time.
“I hate to admit this,” I said, ‘but this whole thing is killing my curiosity. You know me, if handed a mystery, I have to understand it to solve it.”
“So if you’re so smart, why can’t you?” asked Anne.
“You’ve altered you’re appearance, lost weight,” I said.
I turned toward the other Marilyn’s voice. “I’m a private detective,” she said, “looking into insurance fraud because no body was ever found from Mary and Bill’s ill-fated cruise, just Anne’s sweater and one of her shoes when she apparently fell overboard.”
“My sweater and shoes were nice touches,” said Anne.
The younger Marilyn kept talking. “The insurance company had dragged their feet for years, burying the case in paperwork. But now they were getting close to paying off on Mary’s death claim. That’s where I came into the picture. The insurance company had me do one last investigation on it before they finally paid out to Bill on her death.”
“Cruise? Insurance fraud?” I asked, processing this.
“They tried to collect on an Auslander Life Insurance policy after Mary, Bill’s wife, allegedly fell off a cruise ship ten years ago. Auslander Life of Zurich, Switzerland issues specialty policies for life and accident insurance during a cruise. They are written at sea beyond the seven mile recognized limit of a country in international waters, and in this way, they don’t have to abide by any country’s regulation and licensing insurance laws.
“In the U.S. if a body is not found within seven years, the insurance company must pay the death benefit unless it is due to fraud or criminal action on the purchaser or beneficiaries’ part. However, this policy written at sea has an eleven year incontestability clause, and if the body has not been found or fraud or criminal conspiracy has not been proven, Auslander must pay the five million Swiss franc benefit.”
“What’s with the same name?” asked a baffled Tony.
The young Marilyn said, “To rattle them. I followed Bill then Anne, his next door neighbor, on a hunch after spotting the two together. Then I saw Anne watching you, Sam, at rehab, I became curious and researched your background. There had to be a common thread in there.
“I discovered you were a former renter next door to Bill just before his wife, Mary supposedly died. I sent Bill an anonymous note, letting him know you were now in town in an attempt to draw him out using you as bait. Anne bit the bait. I approached you, but then Anne felt the pressure of the note. Merely watching you didn’t solve her problem.
“When Anne showed up for rehab and made contact with you, I knew I was onto something solid. Was Anne really Marilyn Chambers, the one who had died? She looked so different from her original pictures taken on that cruise ship. If it was Anne, she was making a last minute mistake before the big payout: making contact with the past.
“I was unaware of the journal until I caught her slipping it into your car. I looked at it myself then knew why she did it. Then I overheard you and Tony when he discovered it.
“You must’ve become too famous for her to ignore you any longer because they were too close to getting paid off and wanted no loose ends to screw it up. She had to find out what you didn’t write in your journal she found. I had to wait it all out. So I sat back, disappeared and let it play out, observing it all from afar. I needed more proof.”
“That is very thoughtful to leave me hanging out there,” I added sarcastically.
“I had a job to do and did what was necessary to make something happen,” she said, unapologetically. “Before they had the chance to collect on that five million Swiss francs. Besides, I had added incentive: a ten percent reward if I could prove a rock-solid case for their false insurance claim. Also, as Clay arranged, you were to get a part of my 10% incentive reward.”
Clay never mentioned that part to me.
Tony whistled loudly. “Those damn Swiss, I love their chocolates, Rolex watches, and the way they do business! You dogged the two and they endured a ten-year wait: all for a lucrative payoff.”
Bill nodded. “That was our incentive. But then Sam began asking Anne questions about this Marilyn, making us suspicious. I took a picture of her scouting our house while I was out gardening. Then I began following her, following Anne. We knew then we had to make our move quickly on her too in addition to Samantha getting closer by arriving in Medford Lakes to snoop around.”
“Samantha was stirring up trouble,” said Anne.
“She gets under my skin too,” Tony said evenly.
Chapter 56
Miscreants & Reprobates
Was Tony baiting them or me again? I let it go.
As for Bill and Anne, miscreants and reprobates came to mind. They were laser-focused on collecting that insurance money and couldn’t care less about the three of us, collateral damage left in their wake.
I was stymied. At this rate, we’d never talk our way out. As far as being rescued, even Tony’s opportunistic family had absolutely no idea where we were. Although, under circumstances such as these, I would’ve welcomed Martha, Hazel, and Betty’s intrusive nature to play a major hand in getting us out of this mess. But that was wishful thinking.
Chilled, I leaned against Tony, calculating how much longer we could hold them both off. Some stall tactic...
While the other three began to argue who knew what first, Tony whispered, “A penny for your thoughts.”
“You know how I complain my crew always sticks their noses into what they shouldn’t?” I asked him, wistfully.
“I guess you’d like a reshuffle on that play, right?”
I whispered back, “The way I see it, there is no way we are walking out of here.”
“Looks like it, doesn’t it?”
I twisted to look at Marilyn.
Tony did too. “It appears that Marilyn was assigned this old case to sniff around before the insurance company finally settled. No one ever caught on to th
ese two, but her. Looks like we are toast, including Marilyn.”
“She’ll end up being another missing person,” I said.
“But on the other hand, if your cohorts didn’t ignore you completely and have traced your every step they should be bursting through that door any minute to save us, correct?”
I laughed, refusing to give up. There was still time.
“That would be like the miracle at Lourdes.”
As though on cue, we turned to the exit door, clearly illuminated by the two flashlights held by Bill and Anne. It wasn’t that far, but being tied and clamped to the floor it might as well be million miles away as far as escaping.
“By the way, where are we?” I asked our two captors.
Bill flashed his light around the room briefly. “We are in our basement in Medford Lakes. I removed, then cinder-blocked the windows. I was going to grow mushrooms, but then events changed. Now it’s proven very convenient.”
“Other than Marilyn, the authorities don’t know you’re alive, do they, Anne?” I asked.
“I was banking on those years of backlogged paperwork. It worked. The insurance industry had so many claims, I figured if we were patient, we’d be home free with that scheme. It would be retirement money to spend in our golden years offshore. There was no pressure until now.”
She laughed. “That real estate deal went through years ago just before my demise on our cruise. We thought it best to buy that foreclosure under my maiden name, specifically so the former owners wouldn’t catch onto my relationship as their neighbor. I was the renter under my maiden name before closing. They never saw me. It was a speculative investment opportunity we couldn’t pass up, considering we got that property for less than half its value. We’d fix it up, wait, then sell later. We planned a cruise to celebrate.
“Then we realized one more potential deal of a lifetime while on that fateful cruise we could cash in on the special life insurance policy by faking my death. I wouldn’t re-board the cruise ship at one of our stops, then fly home. It was foolproof. Bill threw my sweater and shoes overboard. Then it was just a matter of patiently waiting out the insurance company. The rental played perfectly into that scenario. In time we’d get a long-term payoff on both endeavors, the rental and the ill-fated cruise.”
“So you lived all this time in that rental? What about the locals? Weren’t you ever spotted?” I asked.
“I used my maiden name to purchase that rental. After going overboard on that cruise, I returned back here wearing a gray wig. With the Bill’s help in spreading rumors, I was the reclusive widow, who bought the house and didn’t want to be bothered. The locals bought into it and left me alone. Bill bought all the groceries, collected trash and added what little of it to his. At night I just went right next door to Bill’s after leaving a timer light on in that old rental and slept with him then returned before daylight.
“In time, I let my hair turn gray from a dyed brunette and lost some weight, and changed my wardrobe, wore hats and sunglasses when I went out back to help with my transformation in case I was spotted by a neighbor. If we wanted to go out after dark, we did so in a town much further away. No one was the wiser until now.”
I nodded. “Clever. Plus I realize now that Martha never caught sight of you that one day you were both there at the same time. She is the only one on my crew that might’ve recognized you, especially after hearing you speak.”
“Yes, that was a dicey play. I was careful after that.”
“So it was you that discovered my journal,” I said.
“I found your journal in the rafters, during renovations, but something made me hold onto it. Providence? Who knows.” She walked over to Marilyn, who was trussed up like us and kicked her leg. “Then this so-called Marilyn showed up at rehab watching me, watching you. She saw my reaction when she used my maiden name when she registered. I thought you sent me that note, but it was her. A death wish on her part for sure.
“She then confronted me twice with subtle hints that made me suspicious of what you might have heard but didn’t write in your journal. My patience was wearing thin. We’d waited so long for our payoff. So we decided she had to disappear first before she notified the authorities.”
“When you showed up in Medford Lakes asking questions,” said Bill. “There was another loose end needing to be snipped off.”
Anne added, “At first we figured there shouldn’t be any problems, but then between Marilyn’s performance and you showing up here in Medford Lakes, we knew we had no choice but to bury the past. All of it, once and for all.”
Tony subtly nudged me again. I was already on the same page and nudged him back. They planned to do us in then bury the past (us) in the rental’s woods which was larger than their own. Tony and Marilyn? More than loose ends. Me? I was a real threat. In time, and with mother nature’s composting of the fallen leaves, who would be the wiser as to something buried in the dense woods? People don’t rake woods, only their yards.
Who would ever know what was below the surface?
I didn’t want the Pine Barrens or these bordering areas to be my nameless epitaph. I wanted to go out in blazing glory when I was approximately one hundred years old, still sleuthing and investigating my outlandish mysteries and writing all about them. Period!
Where was Clay? He should be here to save us!
After a minute of silence, Anne said, “Let’s do this!”
“No, wait!” I said, hoping this stall tactic would work.
“What for?” asked an impatient Bill.
“Would a surreptitious recording change your minds?”
There was a silent pause.
“...Recording what?” Anne asked, eyeing me tentatively. “There’s no way these conversations could be recorded. Then she paused in uncertainty, as she looked all around.
“By the way, where is your purse?” She asked me.
I elbowed Tony. “My purse? My cape?”
Tony shrugged sheepishly. Sorry. I left them at Earl’s.”
Anne visibly relaxed. “Good try, Sam.”
Bill was still confused. “Recording?”
Anne laughed. “I read that Sam is known for carrying a recorder for her interviews. She obviously left it at Earl’s. She tried to bluff and pull a tactic to stall for more time. Let’s do this,” she ordered. But then she said, “Wait!”
“Check them just in case. Pat them both down.”
Bill walked over and knelt before us and did just that then smiled. “Nothing. They are both clean. We already destroyed Tony’s phone, tossed his wallet and car keys.”
I turned my head, leaning toward Tony. “I can’t believe you just left my purse and cape! Are you crazy? My credit cards, phone...”
“Quiet! Anne said. “Enough!”
“Let’s inject them then transport them,” Bill said.
I had run out of stall tactics.
“I don’t think so,” shouted a voice from the door.
My head snapped up. I was expecting Clay, but they would do just fine.
“Well, what took you so long?” I asked.
Chapter 57
And Then There Was...
In moments, the FBI, Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office detectives, and Medford Lakes police burst in, guns drawn. My sleuthing senior cohorts, Martha, Hazel and Betty had followed them in and rushed over to me.
“I bet you didn’t expect us,” Martha said cheerfully, trying to untie me.
Tony said, “I never thought I’d be so happy to see the cops! You got here in the nick of time.”
“Of which we were running out of,” I said, breathing much easier now. I pointed to Anne. “Ladies, this is the real Marilyn Chambers, Bill’s wife, Mary, who is very much alive.”
Martha laughed. “Well, she hasn’t aged gracefully.”
Tony laughed. “Okay, which one of you babes am I taking out for a night on the town as a big thank you?”
Three hands went up. Martha’s, Hazel’s and Betty’s.
“I’ll take you all on. It’s Sam I can’t handle,” he said.
An FBI agent handcuffed Bill and Anne.
Martha, Hazel, and Betty cut Tony and I free from our tape and shackles.
Anne gave me a cold stare. “So tell me. I have to know. How did they know where to find you without your phone and recorder?”
Martha stepped in. “Ever since Sam was shoved down a set of steps, we had a GPS tracker placed in her phone and a tracking chip on her tiny recorder to give us her exact location. When she didn’t answer her texts or her phone tonight, we figured the worst had happened and tracked both, one to Earl’s and the other to here.
“When we called Earl’s, they said Sam’s cape, purse and phone where still in the club booth. Both Tony and Sam had disappeared after rushing out. We knew then it was bad and traced the tracking chip on her recorder, which was missing from her purse.
“When we tracked it heading toward Medford Lakes in New Jersey, we called Medford Lakes police and told them of the apparent federal kidnapping. That’s when they called in the FBI and the prosecutor’s office.”
I laughed. “When Medford Lakes popped up, I guess you knew exactly where to look for me.”
Martha nodded. “We figured Bill had you both.”
Anne was furious, shooting me a disgusted look. “I thought Tony left it all back at the restaurant.”
This time Tony laughed. “I know Sam. She might leave her phone, but never her recorder.”
I grinned. “I don’t recall ever mentioning my recorder wasn’t still on me. You just assumed...”
She began spewing invectives at Bill. “I thought you searched them both, you idiot!”
He paled. “I swear, I did.”
I reached down into the front of my dress just below my breast line and removed the scotch-taped recorder, which was still running and held it up for all to see, smiling the whole time. My trip to the ladies’ room at Earl’s to do my thing paid off in spades for answers and our rescue.
Martha said to Anne, “No wonder Sam didn’t recognize you. Your hair is gray and you’re much thinner. Clever, but apparently not that clever. Ten years down the toilet.”
Too Close For Comfort (Samantha Jamison Mystery Book 9) Page 13