by J A Whiting
The expressions on Henry’s and Melody’s faces were like mirror-images of concern.
“Bilow better not be behind the troubles here in town.” Henry looked angry.
“Maria Stores couldn’t be mixed up in the murders.” Melody wrung her hands together. “She wouldn’t hurt her own sister. Would she?”
Henry grumped. “Some people are capable of anything.”
The diner got busy and Melody went out front to help wait tables while Henry furiously worked the grill to prepare the lunch orders. Shelly went back to her baking, her mind working on the things they’d discussed. Scott. Maria. Two dead women. She hoped the police would figure things out soon so she wouldn’t have to worry anymore.
Shelly’s recent dreams popped into her mind. Two of them had seemed so real that it made her uneasy. The dream of the dead young woman floating in the pond and the one where she saw and felt Jill Murray suffer a blow and fall to the ground filled her with dread.
Sweat dribbled down her back and she experienced a moment of dizziness so strong that she had to grip the edge of the counter for almost a full minute. When the sensation passed, Shelly hurried to the sink and splashed cold water onto her face. She took some deep breaths and returned to her baking.
I need to relax. I can’t focus so strongly on these murders. A wave of fatigue struck her hard and she wished she could go home and take a nap, but the thought of falling asleep and having another dream filled her with apprehension … although, the apprehension seemed to be mixed with something else. What was it? A sense of urgency?
There was something important about those dreams….
14
From the deck, Justice watched as Shelly placed the skewers of vegetables onto the grill next to the marinated chicken breasts as Juliet carried a tossed salad and a bowl of rice out to the patio table.
“Go on with the tale of the returning sister,” Juliet said.
Shelly had reported Maria’s unexpected appearance at her door last night and what had been said during her visit. “She was about to leave to meet someone for dinner and went to use the bathroom. While she was gone, her phone buzzed and I looked down at the screen. The text was from someone named Scott.” Shelly let the name sink in. “Could it have been Scott Bilow?”
Juliet stared at Shelly. “Maria was meeting someone for dinner and got a text from Scott?” A look of distaste washed over her face. “That is one busy man. What did he do? Go by the house and try to offer the grieving sister some comfort? He’s unbelievable.”
“We don’t know if it was Scott Bilow.” Shelly turned the chicken. “I asked who she was meeting for dinner. She’s only been in town a few times so I wondered if she had a friend living here. She told me it was just an acquaintance.”
“It very well could be Bilow.” Juliet shook her head. “He’s like lightning. He moves in on new people, visitors, people feeling like they need a friend. How does he even have the energy?”
Shelly brought the platter of chicken and vegetables to the table where she cut up some of the meat for Justice and set a small plate down for the cat. Juliet passed the salad to her friend.
“There are lots of things about Maria that make me suspicious of her.”
“I feel the same,” Shelly said. “That note, for one.”
Juliet nodded. “Only Maria’s fingerprints are on the paper? How would Meg have been able to avoid getting her prints on that thing? I don’t buy that she used a tissue to pick it up.”
“It seems kind of farfetched.” Shelly added rice to her plate. “But on the other hand, if Maria is responsible for the note, why would she tell me only her prints are on it?”
“Maybe she’s trying to get you on her side by confiding in you.”
“Why does she need me on her side?” Shelly tilted her head in question.
“To vouch for her? She ran into you on the street the night of the fire. Did she do that so she’d be able to say she’d been with you, sort of an alibi? Did she see you coming down the street and then rush out with her story of someone trying to break into the house?”
As Shelly considered the idea, her jaw set. “Is she using me to cover her tracks? Is she confiding in me to have someone who will take her side, someone who can verify where she was? Have someone who can say to the police oh, yes, she was very upset when she heard someone breaking in.”
“Why would she set the fire though?” Juliet asked.
“It must be for the reason we discussed earlier. She didn’t want the police to find something.”
“Why not just take whatever it was home with her and get rid of it in New York City? Away from here?”
“Could it have been something hard to remove?”
“Like what?”
“Bloodstains?” Shelly suggested.
Justice looked up from her meal and hissed.
“Blood?” Juliet’s jaw dropped and she lowered her voice. “You think Maria could be the killer? Yikes, I only had her pegged as the arsonist.”
“I know, it’s a ridiculous thought. Maria was in New York when Meg was killed.”
Juliet raised an eyebrow. “How do we know where she was?”
Shelly’s face went blank. “Well, wasn’t she in New York? The police must know where she was.”
“Jay doesn’t share many details with me about cases. Most things are confidential to the investigations.”
“But?” Shelly asked.
“But, I overheard something yesterday when I went to drop something off for her at the police station. Don’t breathe a word ... for all I know, I heard it wrong.” Even though Juliet knew no one was coming into the backyard, she still took a quick glance over her shoulder. “I heard my sister on the phone. I only heard a few things. But it seems like they’re having trouble pinning down where Maria was the night before and on the day Meg was killed. Something about her cell phone being off and no one who is able to vouch for her whereabouts.”
Shelly said, “Maria’s phone was off when she left town so abruptly the night of the fire. She told me her phone wasn’t working and when she finally got a new one and turned it on, she was shocked to see the messages from the police.”
“Convenient, huh?” Juliet’s eyes narrowed. “Or maybe, clever?”
Shelly jabbed a piece of chicken with her fork. “Maybe we’re letting our imaginations run away. We could probably pick most anyone in town and make a case against them as the killer.”
“Me?”
“I said almost anyone. Not you.” Shelly smiled. “Although I don’t know where you were the day Meg was killed.”
“I was out of town and I have alibis.”
“That’s a relief,” Shelly kidded. “I wouldn’t want to be having dinner with a murderer.”
“What about Scott Bilow?” Juliet asked. “He wanted the teaching job Jill Murray was probably going to get and he had an altercation with her in the resort pub the night before she was killed. They could have met up accidentally the next day, had another argument, Scott lost his temper, and….”
“That’s possible.” Shelly gave a nod. “But, if the two women are linked, which they probably are, why would Scott kill Meg? Did he even know her?”
“I’m not sure.” Juliet put down her fork. “Do you get the feeling sometimes that things are right in front of us and we don’t see them?”
Shelly nodded. “You think the police feel that way when they’re working on a case?”
“I bet.”
Shelly put her chin in her hand. “I know I’ve asked before, but do you think there’s a connection between the women or do you think the killer chose them randomly and all they have in common is being attacked by the same man?”
“My first guess was they had a connection, but now, I’m not so sure.” Juliet swirled the ice water around in her glass. “Could they have been in school together?”
“If that was the case, Maria would have known about Jill, wouldn’t she?”
“Not necessarily,” Juliet
said. “Maria was fifteen years older than her sister. Meg might not have talked to Maria about school friends.”
“Meg and Jill lived a few miles from each other in the central part of the state. They came to Paxton Park a few months apart.” Shelly tapped her chin with her finger.
“Maybe they worked together?” Juliet offered.
“Jill was a teacher, Meg was a real estate agent.” Shelly started to shake her head, but then her eyes lit up. “What if there was a professional connection? Maybe Jill was a client of Meg’s?”
“That’s a good idea,” Juliet said. “Maybe Jay knows this already, but when I see her, I’m going to tell her our idea.”
“Real estate files.” Shelly sat up straight. “I have a crate full of Meg’s most recent real estate files.”
“Let’s look through them.” Juliet’s voice shook with excitement.
Shelly’s face clouded. “Isn’t it unethical to do that?”
Juliet stood up. “The woman is dead. We’re trying to figure out who killed her. I think it’s completely ethical to try to find the killer. Where are the files?”
As Shelly led the way inside, she pointed to the edge of the patio. “There’s a loose brick right there. Don’t trip on it.”
They carried the box of Meg’s work folders into the dining room and spread the paperwork over the top of the table. They each pulled up a seat to look through the files. Justice jumped up onto the chair next to Shelly.
After an hour of reading, Juliet looked across the table at Shelly with a wide grin. “Eureka,” she said softly and pushed the open file folder across the table to her friend.
The page was a list of attendees at an open house that Meg had run at a home for sale in Eastborough. On the sheet’s fourth line, the names Jill Murray and Kathy Blake were written.
Shelly lifted her eyes from the paper and smiled at Juliet. “Jill went to an open house that Meg held.”
The calico meowed and swished her tail back and forth.
“Who’s Kathy Blake? Her name is on the same line with Jill’s,” Juliet noted. “She must have been a friend of Jill’s.”
“If we could find her, we could ask her about Jill and Meg. What’s the date of the open house?” Shelly ran her eyes over the document. “Here it is. The open house was a month before Meg moved to Paxton Park and four months before Jill came here for the interview.”
“Was the open house the first time Meg and Jill met?” Juliet asked.
“If it was, was it a coincidence that they both came to town?”
“I’m going to call Jay and tell her what we found.” Juliet went to the living room to get her phone and make the call to her sister. In a few minutes, she was back. “Jay wants to see it so I’m going to take a photo of the sign-in sheet and send it to her.” Standing over the table, she took the picture and tapped at the phone to send it off.
After five minutes passed, a text came in and a wide smile spread over Juliet’s face when she read it. “Jay says we’re geniuses. She’s going to track down Kathy Blake and when she finds her, she wants us to go along when she interviews the woman.”
“Good,” Shelly said, a determined look on her face. “A tiny step closer to figuring out what happened to Meg and Jill.”
Justice let out a loud trill.
“You’re right, kitty cat.” Juliet winked at the feline. “Justice is a-coming.”
15
As it turned out, Kathy Blake was easy to find. When Jay made a call to the Eastborough real estate agency where Meg had previously worked, she was told that Ms. Blake was a selectperson for the town. Ms. Blake offered to come to Paxton Park and the meeting was set for early in the morning at a small coffee shop just outside the city limits. When Juliet asked her sister why they weren’t meeting at the police station, Jay answered cryptically that some interviews shouldn’t be made public. Juliet pressed for more details, but Jay wouldn’t say any more.
Kathy Blake, in her early thirties, was tall and very slender with short blond hair and intelligent brown eyes. She wore trim black slacks and a red fitted blazer. Her manner was friendly and forthcoming and when she saw the three women enter the breakfast shop, she stood and waved them over to join her in a booth.
Jay shook hands and introduced herself. “Captain Jayne Landers-Smyth.” She gestured to her companions. “This is Juliet Landers and this is Michelle Taylor.”
“Call me Shelly.” Shelly sat down next to Kathy.
Juliet shook and took a seat next to her sister and opposite Kathy.
After some general pleasantries, Jay got down to business. “We were fortunate to find you and hope you might talk with us about Jill Murray.”
“I’d be glad to.” Kathy’s face took on a serious expression. “I’d do anything I could to bring Jill’s killer to justice.”
“How did you know Jill?” Jay asked.
“Jill and I enjoyed working out. We’ve both done triathlons and had completed two ultra-marathons. We met a few years ago. We’re both members of the same running club. I guess I should say we were members of the same running club.” Kathy looked down at her hands for a moment. “Jill and I got along great. We became close friends.”
“It came to our attention that you and Jill went to an open house a few months ago that was held by Meg Stores,” Jay said. “Did you or Jill know Meg before that day?”
“We didn’t.” Kathy shook her head. “That was the first time we met her.”
“Did you and Jill interact much with Meg that day?”
“We had a long chat with Meg. She enjoyed athletics, too, so we had things in common. I was the one looking for a house, Jill came along with me. I liked Meg and asked if she would represent me as a buyer’s agent, but she said she’d made plans to move to Paxton Park and referred me to someone else in her office. Jill asked Meg about the town and why she’d decided to move there. Meg told us that she loved the outdoors and had skied in Paxton Park as a teen. She said the town was lively and there was so much to do, no matter the season.”
“Was Jill thinking of moving away from where she lived?” Jay questioned.
“Jill had recently broken up with a longtime boyfriend and was considering a move away from central Massachusetts. She wanted a change. She never thought of moving to the Berkshires. Meg talked glowingly about the area and Jill was eager to look into it.”
“So she applied for the teaching job?” Shelly asked.
“First we took a ride out, did a day trip to check it out. We both loved the town … all the shops and restaurants, the arts community, not to mention the natural beauty.” Kathy chuckled. “I even considered making a move, but it wasn’t realistic for me. I have my business in Eastborough, I’m a selectperson there. I was thrilled for Jill though, she was elated to find such a gorgeous place within two to three hours drive from her friends. When she found out the Paxton Park high school was looking for a math teacher, she applied immediately.” Kathy frowned. “Unfortunately.”
“Did Jill come to town for the job interview on her own?”
“I was planning to go with her.” Kathy cleared her throat. “An emergency meeting of the select board was called though and I had to cancel the trip.” Shifting her gaze to the tabletop, she said, “I can’t stop thinking that things might have been different if I’d gone along. If I’d been there, maybe….”
Jay shook her head. “It’s common to have such thoughts in situations like this. If only this, if only that….” Making eye contact with Kathy, Jay said sadly, “There’s no way to know if things could have been altered … perhaps, fate has plans for all of us and those plans are set in stone. You can’t berate or second guess yourself.”
Shelly stared at Jay. How many times had she rehashed the car accident and agonized over what small thing might have altered the outcome?
“Did you talk to Jill during her stay in town?” Jay asked.
“Every day, sometimes a few times a day, texts, phone calls.” Kathy nodded. “She was happy, s
he told me all about the hiking trails, kayaking on the lake, how great the skiing would be in the winter. Jill even went on a zip-line tour and raved about the scenery and how much she loved it.”
Shelly’s attention pinged. “I recently moved to Paxton Park. I went on the zip line adventure, too. Did Jill mention who her guides were?”
Kathy’s brows knitted together in thought. “It was a man and a woman. Could it have been Mary and Jack? No, wait, it was Molly and Jack. I remember because Jill said how friendly and knowledgeable they were. Molly was a marathon runner and Jack had been in the military. They invited Jill to get together for drinks that night to meet some of their friends. She went and had a great time.”
“Small world,” Shelly said. “Molly and Jack were my guides, too.” Something about Jill zip lining with Molly and Jack nagged at her.
Juliet asked, “What happened to Meg didn’t deter Jill from considering a move to town?”
“Oh, it did.” Kathy’s shoulders drooped. “We were out for dinner with friends one night after Meg had died. The conversation focused on whether or not moving to Paxton Park right after a woman had been murdered there was such a good idea.”
“Jill decided it was safe to make the move?” Shelly asked.
“Jill really hadn’t made the final decision,” Kathy said. “She wanted to spend time in the area after the interview to get a feel for things. When we talked, I got the impression that she considered the murder a random happening and that it shouldn’t keep her from a good opportunity. I think if she was offered the position, she would have accepted.”
“Did Jill ever mention a Maria Stores?” Jay asked.
Kathy thought for a few moments. “Was she Meg’s sister? No, I don’t recall Jill bringing up anyone by that name.”
“Did Jill mention a man named Scott Bilow?”
“He was the man being considered for the same job? Jill told me that the son of the school superintendent was vying for the same position and she was nervous that he would get it.”