Spackled and Spooked

by Jennie Bentley

  “But then why sell it to us?” Derek objected. I bit my lip.

  “I didn’t think about that. Maybe he thought the body would be gone by now? Rotted away?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Or maybe he just changed his mind, and regretted selling the place to us, and wanted it back. Maybe he’s the one who rigged the footsteps and the screaming to scare us away. And maybe, when we found the bones, he figured he’d better get his ghost setup out of here before the police found it. So he came back that night to take down the speakers or wires or whatnot, and Venetia saw him. She lived here seventeen years ago; she’d probably recognize him.”

  “And then he panicked and killed her?” Derek tilted his head to the side and considered. A lock of hair fell over his forehead, and my fingers itched to brush it away, but they were sticky with glue, so I refrained.

  “I guess he might have,” he agreed after a moment. “If it runs in the family. And she might have felt safe inviting him in. He was little Patrick Murphy, after all.”

  We were in the back bedroom, where Derek was preparing the teak dresser-removing the bottoms of the top two drawers and taking off the back panel-for plumbing. Meanwhile, I had appropriated one of the panels he had discarded and was busy adhering pieces of crumpled grocery bags to it to show him what the walls in the bathroom could look like if we could agree to brown paper bag them. Or more likely, craft paper them, since rolls of brown craft paper are a lot easier to work with than grocery bags.

  “It explains what he was doing in here the other day, too,” I said, while I worked. “And why the papers were on the floor this morning. It wasn’t Brandon at all. Ricky heard me talk about the boxes and where they were. That’s why he made straight for the master bedroom when we got into the house. I thought he was looking for the second bathroom, but he was really looking for the boxes. He may not have anything to remember his parents or grandparents by. So he started looking through them. And of course he got emotional; who wouldn’t? So when Paige came to look for him, he stuffed the papers back into the box in a hurry and locked himself in the bathroom so she wouldn’t see him cry.”

  Derek nodded, pensively. “That explains the other day. It also explains last night. If he didn’t know about his mother and Mr. Nickerson, it must have been a shock finding out like that.”

  “Very much so. No wonder he looked like he’d seen a ghost.” I smoothed another crumpled piece of brown paper over the wallpaper paste.

  “It still doesn’t prove anything, though,” Derek warned. “Just that he didn’t want anyone in Waterfield to know that he’s really Patrick Murphy. And I don’t know that I can blame him for that.”

  I shook my head. Me, either. “Take a look at this.” I lifted the papered panel to an upright position, the better for him to see how it would look on the wall. “What do you think? Once it’s dry, we can paint it, and it’ll have a leather or suede look. Especially if we brush a lighter or darker color over the top.”

  “I’m sure that’ll be fine,” Derek said.

  I blinked. “Just like that?” I’d expected more of a fight, to be honest.

  He shrugged. “Why not? It’s interesting. And it’ll look good with the teak. So you want two white basins sunk into the top of this thing, and a white commode, and everything else brown and blue, is that it?”

  I nodded. “It’ll be dark, and kind of masculine, although I can decorate it to minimize that once we’re ready to put the house on the market. I think it’s the best solution, if we have to keep the brown and navy tile.”

  “Sounds good to me. What about the other bathroom?”

  “There, I was thinking of something lighter. White tile around the tub and on the floor, and maybe halfway up the walls, too. A vessel sink on a stand-that Fiesta ware bowl of Kate’s that I used to make mashed potatoes last night would look great-and a funky shower curtain, to pull the whole thing together. Anyone who moves in here will probably have their own, but it’ll look good while we’re showing the place. And I know how to make my own, did you know? Peek-a-boo shower curtains, with clear cutouts.”

  “Sounds interesting,” Derek said with a grin. I grinned back.

  “I’ll make one for you for Christmas, how’s that?”

  “I was hoping you’d make one for yourself, but I guess that’d be OK, too. C’mere, Tink.” He reached a hand down and pulled me to my feet. Once there, he put his arms around me. “It’s been a crazy couple of days, hasn’t it?” he said into my hair.

  I nodded, cheek against his chest. “Totally.”

  His voice was a low rumble against my ear. “Are you reconsidering the idea of renovating for a living? It might be hard getting rid of this house once we’re done with it.”

  “I haven’t been reconsidering,” I said. “Have you?”

  “Not for myself, but I thought maybe you had.”

  I shook my head. “I’m having fun. I’ll admit I’m a little worried about being able to sell the house again, but not so much that I want to give up.”

  “So we’re still partners?”

  “Of course we’re still partners.” I tilted my head back and smiled up at him. He tilted his head down and kissed me. This state of affairs went on for a few minutes, and might have gone on longer if there hadn’t been a knock on the door.

  “Saved by the bell,” Derek said, with a rueful look at me. I smoothed my hair.

  “It’s just as well. This isn’t really the place, is it? You go see who it is. And wipe your mouth on the way. Lipstick, you know.”

  Derek grinned, rubbing the back of his hand over his lips as he went. I ducked into the bathroom to inspect myself in the mirror and make sure I looked decent before I went to join him.

  When Derek came back, he had Wayne with him. The chief of police looked particularly bland. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said, by which I deduced that I-or Derek-hadn’t done as good a job as I had hoped of hiding the evidence of our recent clinch.

  “No problem. We were just… um…”

  “Right,” Wayne said when I faltered on the description of exactly what we’d been doing. “I came to tell you about Ricky Swanson. Or Patrick Swanson. Formerly Patrick Murphy.”

  “He admitted it?”

  Wayne nodded. “No reason why he shouldn’t. Being Patrick Murphy isn’t a crime. Even hiding the fact that he’s Patrick Murphy isn’t a crime. He isn’t impersonating anyone. The Swanson name is legal; he took it when he was adopted by his aunt and uncle. His aunt Laurie, who he grew up with, is Peggy Murphy’s sister. Her married name is Swanson. And he’s registered at Barnham as Patrick Swanson; Ricky is just a nickname.”

  “And being Patrick Murphy doesn’t mean that he’s guilty of anything at all.” I nodded. “Derek and I were just talking about it.”

  “Oh, is that what you were doing?” Wayne said. Derek grinned. I blushed.

  “Earlier. We were talking about it earlier.”

  “Right. And you decided that just because he’s Patrick Murphy, it doesn’t mean squat.”

  “Pretty much,” I admitted. “We did come up with a few possible scenarios, though.”

  Wayne hooked his thumbs in his belt and rocked back on his heels while I went through the various combinations of events that Derek and I had come up with earlier.

  “I’ll look into it,” he said when I was done, “but I doubt anything will come of it. I just don’t think he’s involved, Avery. Yes, he’s Patrick Murphy, and yes, the house belonged to him. Yes, he knew Holly, but there’s no reason to think he would have wanted to murder her. They were five the last time they met, and we have no proof that he ever came back here. Not until a couple of weeks ago, and by then she was long dead.”

  “True.”

  “Much simpler to assume that someone local killed and buried her. Someone who knew Holly and knew that the house was empty. And then that same person killed Venetia Rudolph when she realized what had happened. It’s so much easier that way.”

  “Occam’s razor,” D
erek nodded. I glanced at him.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Occam’s razor. Lex parsimoniae. The law of parsimony. Or, in common parlance, the simplest solution is often best. And right.”

  “Fine.” I shrugged. “Have it your way. Ricky Swanson is Patrick Murphy, but he didn’t have anything to do with Holly’s death or Venetia ’s murder. He just came back to Waterfield because…?”

  “He was curious,” Wayne said. “His mother went to Barnham, and so did his grandfather, and he wanted to face his demons and see the house again before selling it. Or so he said. I’ll make some inquiries, see if he was in Pittsburgh four years ago for his own high school graduation, but I don’t think this’ll come to anything. Sorry, Avery, but…”

  He was poised to continue, but had to take a break when his cell phone rang. “Scuse me. Rasmussen here. Yeah, Ramona…”

  “That reminds me,” I said to Derek, “remember a couple of months ago, when we got pulled over for doing that U-turn on Main Street, and you said you hoped it was Officer Estrada-Ramona Estrada-because you’d be able to talk yourself out of the ticket?”

  He grinned. “You’ve realized that Ramona Estrada is older than my stepmother and happily married, haven’t you?”

  “And not an officer, either. She’s the police secretary, you jerk.”

  The grin widened. “Were you worried?”

  “Not at all,” I said robustly.

  Derek chuckled, but before he could answer, Wayne severed the connection with Ramona Estrada and turned back to us. His face was expressionless. “Have to go, I’m afraid. Ramona just took an anonymous tip I have to check out.”

  “You’re kidding,” I said, interested. “What?”

  “Someone called to say we’ll find Holly White’s missing bag of clothing in a house in the Village.”

  “That sounds like good news,” Derek said. “Might be a break in the case?”

  But Wayne shook his head, his face gloomy.

  “Why not?” I asked. And then, “It’s not Aunt Inga’s house, is it?”

  “Phoebe Thomas’s house,” Wayne said. He added, after a beat, “ Brandon ’s mother.”

  And with that bombshell he walked out, leaving us speechless and gaping at each other.

  ***

  Thirty minutes later we were sitting outside a house in the Village watching Wayne greet Phoebe Thomas.

  The house was another Queen Anne Victorian, but less ornately built than Kate’s B and B, which boasted two different turrets-one with an onion dome, one with a square mansard roof-a wraparound porch, a bay window, and gables in every imaginable direction. The Thomas house was much simpler: just a square, two-story box with a porch across the front and a steeply pitched gable up top.

  “ Eastlake,” Derek said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Charles Eastlake. British architect and furniture designer. The Eastlake style is named after him.”

  “I knew that,” I said.

  Derek glanced over at me. “Uh-huh.”

  “No, I did. Really. Mandatory architecture classes in design school. I’ve heard of Charles Eastlake. Also called stick style, right?”

  He grinned. “Right.”

  I smiled. “See? I told you.”

  “You did. So what do you think is going on over there, O smart one?” He indicated the porch of the stick, or Eastlake, Victorian, where Wayne was still speaking earnestly to Phoebe Thomas. She was a tall woman, approximately the same age as him-mid to late forties-with the fair hair that her son had inherited. But where Brandon was strapping and sturdy, with rosy cheeks and bright eyes, Phoebe looked thin and pale. She was hugging both arms around herself, and silver strands were mingling with the light of her hair. Her face was pinched and drawn. Not that I could blame her for that under the circumstances, although I suspected that the anonymous tip hadn’t been the cause; this was something deeper.

  “Is she sick?” I asked. Derek nodded.

  “Multiple sclerosis. Symptoms started to manifest four or five years ago.”

  “Around the time Brandon graduated from high school.”

  “A little before, I think. Her husband decided to make himself scarce, and no one has seen him since. He’s living somewhere in Connecticut with a new wife.”

  “What a peach,” I said. “That explains why Brandon joined the police force instead of going to law school. He wanted to stick around in case his mother needed him, and he probably needed to make a living, if she couldn’t.”

  Derek nodded. “How did you know that he wanted to go to law school? Did he tell you?”

  “Lionel Kenefick did. Yesterday. He sounded resentful. I didn’t get the impression that he likes Brandon very much.”

  “Probably not,” Derek admitted. “I can’t imagine they have much in common, can you?”

  “Probably not. Look, he’s going around back.” I pointed to the house, where Wayne must have convinced Phoebe Thomas to let him take a look around the outside of the property. She went back inside while he made for the yard.

  “Shall we?” Derek said, reaching for the door handle.

  “Will he let us?”

  “We’ll find out.” He exited the truck and came around to open my door for me. Hand in his, I trailed behind him through the yard and around the corner of the house.

  Up close, I could see just how badly in need of repair it was. Not as bad as Aunt Inga’s house had been when I inherited it-my aunt had neglected it for twenty years or more-but bad enough that unless someone paid it some attention soon, the damage would be irreversible. The paint was peeling away from rotting boards, the windows were in desperate need of glazing, and there were cracks in the foundation.

  We found Wayne in a small building on the back of the property. Once upon a time it had presumably been a garage, with a rutted track leading up to it, but over the past few years, someone had converted it into a gym, with mats on the concrete floor and a punching bag hanging from the rafters next to a stout climbing rope. A weight bench stood in one corner, and one of those chin-up bars was lying discarded on the floor next to the door.

  “Must be Brandon ’s personal gym,” Derek muttered. I nodded.

  Wayne scowled. “What are you two doing here? I don’t recall asking you to come along as backup.”

  “We’re curious,” I said. “Holly was buried in our crawlspace. We feel a proprietary interest.”

  “Sure you do. Fine, since you’re here you can witness that I didn’t bring anything with me into this place and that there’s nothing up my sleeve.”

  “I’ll witness that,” I said. “So what are we looking for?”

  Wayne looked around. “A bag.”

  “What kind of bag?”

  “One that’s big enough to hold a few changes of clothes and whatever else an eighteen-year-old girl might have decided to take with her to Hollywood. Or whatever someone thought she’d have wanted to take to make it look like she was going there.”

  “Her mother gave you a list, right?”

  He nodded. “What she could remember, now. I don’t know how accurate it is.”

  “What did the tip say?” Derek asked. He was poking around over in the corner, behind the weight-lifting bench.

  Wayne turned toward him. “Just that I should look for Holly White’s stuff on Brandon Thomas’s property. That they were dating before she disappeared. Phoebe won’t let me search the house unless Brandon is here, but she told me to look around out here as much as I wanted while I wait for him to come back.”

  “I guess she’s not worried that you’ll find anything, then.”

  “I’m not worried that I’ll find anything,” Wayne said. “But I have to look. It would look bad if I didn’t.”

  I nodded. Bad enough that Brandon and Holly had dated in the first place, now that she was dead, but if word got out that Wayne had received an anonymous tip that Brandon was involved, and he’d ignored it, the manure would hit the fan for sure. “But you don’t really think he was
involved, right? Even though he and Holly dated?”

  “I’d be very surprised,” Wayne said. “I’ve worked with the boy for two years. He’s not a killer.”

  I hesitated, but in the end I felt I had to speak. “Is he the type to try to hide a crime, though? If it was an accident, and he was afraid he’d go to jail? His father just left, and his mother would be all alone, with no one to take care of her… Is it possible that he’d panic and bury Holly’s body and try to get away with it?”

  Wayne didn’t answer for a moment. “Much as I’d like to say I know he wouldn’t,” he said eventually, “I’m not sure. It was four years ago. He was eighteen, just a kid; there’s no telling what he might have done in a moment of panic. Let’s just say that I’m hoping real hard the call was just a prank and there’s nothing here for us to find.”

  I nodded. I could get behind that.

  “Sorry to burst your bubble,” Derek said from over in his corner, “but I think I found something.”

  Wayne stiffened, like a pointer scenting game. “Don’t touch it!”

  “Do I look stupid to you?” Derek stepped aside as Wayne came closer. “There, in the corner. Under the bottom shelf. I don’t think Brandon would own a hot pink backpack, do you?”

  “I wouldn’t think so,” Wayne agreed. He pulled out a small digital camera and snapped a couple of shots of the bag in situ before tucking the camera back into his pocket and fishing out a pair of surgical gloves instead.

  Five minutes later the bag was in the middle of the floor, emptied of all contents. Surrounding it were those of Holly’s possessions the girl had wanted to take to California with her. Or those whoever packed the bag had thought it would make sense for her to take to make it look like she’d left town of her own free will. Two pairs of jeans, a half dozen T-shirts, socks, bras, and panties, a makeup bag, a small jewelry box, and a pair of black patent-leather shoes with four-inch heels sat in neat piles on the floor. A clingy, black dress that looked like it might have covered the essentials but very little else was draped over the weight bench next to the sequined, green gown from the prom photos. A little black book full of phone numbers and addresses lay in Wayne ’s gloved hands. A quick look revealed that Brandon ’s name and number was present, with a little heart next to it, no less.