An Artful Assassination

by Susan Harper

  “So, do you think a deal went south or something?” Sheldon questioned.

  “Not exactly,” Felicity said, reaching for the original will that they had found. “Your mom had this stashed away in her bedroom. It’s her last will and testament. A copy of the real one.”

  Sheldon took it and began skimming through it. “She left almost everything to me…left a little money to Lonnie…but where did the fake one come from?”

  “We highly suspect that it came from Lonnie,” Felicity explained. “He probably destroyed the official copy and plagiarized the one that was read at the courthouse. But he also likely did not realize that your mom kept a copy here in her bedroom.”

  Sheldon tensed up as he placed the copy of the will back on the bed. “Lonnie… You think he killed her?” he asked.

  “The evidence certainly seems to suggest that,” Felicity said. “The police are on their way now to collect the evidence, and it’s very likely that they will make an arrest today.”

  “Thank you,” he said, looking very sad. “I can’t believe Lonnie would do this.”

  The door to the bedroom suddenly opened. “Wait until you see this big one she’s got hanging over her bed. There’s more diamonds than…” Lonnie froze. He stood upright, staring at all of them, and he quickly put on a perky facade. “Hey, so, are we having a meeting in here?” he asked.

  Lark entered the room behind him. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Pauline said under her breath.

  Lonnie’s eyes darted toward the bed where a bunch of jewelry was spread out. “Oh, wow, would you look at all of that jewelry,” he muttered, trying to pretend like he wasn’t aware of the number of jewels hidden in the house.

  Sheldon shot Lonnie a filthy look, and that was all it took for Lonnie to realize that they all knew. But he wasn’t the first one to bolt. It was Lark. She practically leaped out the door, Lonnie right on her heels. “Well, that certainly made her look guilty,” Pauline said.

  “They’re going to get away!” Sheldon yelped, hurrying out the door as well. The women all dipped out as well. Lark was already halfway down the stairs by the time they all got out of the bedroom.

  Dot had zipped past all of them, feeding off the excitement in the room. Lonnie was just about to start down the stairs when Dot arrived at his feet. The little dog grabbed hold of a loose shoelace as though she wanted to play, and Lonnie toppled over his feet. Kendell covered her mouth in surprise to see Dot still at the top of the stairs, Lonnie’s shoe in her mouth. The little thing looking happy and victorious that it had managed to swipe a toy during all of the commotion. Lonnie went tumbling down the stairs, leaving his shoe behind. He collided with Lark at the bottom of the steps, sending her to the floor with a fierce thud.

  Sheldon scurried down the stairs, meeting with his stepbrother and Lark, who were both lying out on the floor moaning. Sheldon jumped onto Lonnie, pinning him down. “You killed her! You killed her, didn’t you?” he shouted.

  “Get off me, Shelly!” Lonnie yelped.

  “You did it, didn’t you? You killed her!”

  Lark managed to jump up and bolt for the door. Kendell had made it to the front of the trio of women and was nearly at the bottom of the steps. She contemplated tackling the woman to the ground, but there was no need. Lark flung the door open and ran smack into an officer who had been about to knock.

  “Stop her!” Kendell shouted, and he did.

  Lark backed up. “I had nothing to do with this!” she declared.

  “Yeah? Then why did you run!” Sheldon shouted, still sitting on top of Lonnie.

  “She’s the one who forged the will!” Lonnie snapped. “This was all her idea because your mom was overcharging her for the jewelry!”

  Sheldon glared down at Lonnie. “So, she was the mastermind, but you’re the one who attacked her, aren’t you? You killed her!”

  “He killed her!” Lark snapped. “I had nothing to do with this!”

  “She’s lying!” Sheldon retorted.

  A second officer entered the house, and the two of them were quick getting both Lark and Lonnie in cuffs, but not before Sheldon delivered one good punch to his stepbrother. He was quickly told to back off or they would put him in cuffs as well. Sheldon obeyed, standing upright. Lonnie and Lark were both shoved into the back of a patrol car just as Jack came pulling up to the house. He exited, smiling to see that there were some suspects locked away in the back of a cop car already.

  “Ooh, a two-for-one,” Jack joked as he met Felicity, Pauline, and Kendell on the porch.

  “You missed quite a show,” Felicity said. “Dot knocked Lonnie down the stairs, and he crashed right into Lark.”

  Pauline was holding the dog, grinning and laughing. “That’s my little Dot! Such a brave girl! You helped catch the bad guys, didn’t you? Who’s my good girl? Who’s my good girl?” Dot was wagging her tail and giving Pauline kisses, not sure why she was getting so much praise after knocking someone down the stairs.

  Felicity and Jack went inside with one of the officers to talk and to show them the evidence they had all found. Kendell, however, opted to sit outside on the porch with Pauline, taking advantage of the nice rocking chairs. Sheldon sat down near them, taking in a deep breath as he gazed out into the yard where the other officer was standing near the patrol car that contained Lonnie and Lark. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll have to thank Felicity too. Thanks to you all, my mom is going to get the justice she deserves.”

  “I’m so sorry about all of this mess,” Pauline said. “But at least the truth is out now.”

  “I wonder if all of my mom’s paintings are covered in stolen jewelry,” he said. “No doubt the police are going to confiscate all of that. I was really hoping to keep some of her artwork. I wasn’t expecting to find out that my mom was some national jewelry thief back in the day.”

  “No, that one was an interesting little twist,” Kendell said, smirking. “But we have the real will now, so Lonnie’s not going to be able to touch your mom’s belongings.”

  “Good,” Sheldon hissed, staring down at the patrol car angrily. “I knew something was wrong. I just couldn’t figure out why my mom would have left me nothing. It didn’t make any sense to me at all. I felt so betrayed, I guess. Like I told you all, she didn’t have much of a relationship with Lonnie at all.”

  “Well, now you know,” Kendell said. “And it looks like those two are probably going to be in jail for a good, long time.”

  Sheldon smiled. “Good riddance. You know, I never really liked Lonnie all that much. I just put up with him because he was my stepbrother. I don’t have to do that anymore.”

  Kendell smiled. Dot hopped out of Pauline’s lap and came over to her, wagging her tail and looking up at Kendell eagerly. “Good dog, Dot.”

  14

  Kendell breathed in the air as she sat out on the deck of Pauline’s daughter’s home. Samantha was inside cutting up watermelon while her husband was working the grill nearby. “These barbeque ribs are going to be great,” he said, smelling in the aroma.

  “If you don’t burn them,” Pauline said.

  “Hey, let the grill master do his thing,” he said.

  “I’m just saying that it’s a good thing Samantha is making fried chicken,” Pauline said. “You’ve caught that grill on fire more times than I can count.”

  “You just like giving me a hard time, don’t you?” the man asked.

  “You’re my son-in-law. It’s practically a requirement that I heckle you,” Pauline teased. He laughed and shook his head.

  Felicity and Iris were seated at the picnic table with Kendell, laughing at their dad as he and their grandmother made jabs at one another. “Are those two always like this?” Kendell asked.

  “Pretty much,” Iris said. “It’s all in good fun, though. They secretly love each other.”

  Kendell snickered a bit. Dot came running around the picnic table, barking. “Easy, girl,” Kendell said. “I’m sure Pauline is going to feed you something in a mi
nute.”

  Samantha came out onto the deck, giant plate of watermelon in tow. “Iris, come help me get the fried chicken out here,” she said.

  “It’s done already?” Mr. Overton asked.

  “Just pulled it out of the fryer,” she said.

  “Yum,” he said. “I love your fried chicken. Felicity, this little cookout was a good idea.”

  “Well, I hated to send Kendell off without presenting her with some traditional southern homestyle cooking,” she said, jumping up. “I better go finish the potato salad, actually.” Felicity followed her mom and sister inside to help finish everything up.

  Soon there was an entire spread of southern fixins in front of them. Watermelon, barbeque ribs, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cobb, biscuits as well as cornbread, deviled eggs, potato salad, Brunswick stew, and a bunch of other southern delicacies everyone was insisting on the New Yorker to try. Kendell laughed, loading her plate down. “There is nothing even remotely healthy on this table other than that watermelon,” she said.

  “Boo!” Iris yelped. “This is a southern feast, it’s not supposed to be healthy!”

  “There’s okra,” Pauline said.

  “It’s fried!” Kendell countered, laughing. “But, oh my gosh, everything is so good!”

  “Of course it is. It’s all fried!” Pauline exclaimed, laughing. “Make sure you save room for dessert. I got my famous peach cobbler cooking in the oven inside.”

  “I am of course going to have to sample some of your cooking, Pauline,” Kendell said with a smile. “And cobbler? That sounds good.”

  Kendell smiled as she chewed on her fried chicken, sampled the potato salad, and chugged the sweet tea that Samantha had made. Mr. Overton at last finished his barbeque ribs, and he loaded them onto at tray and brought them over to the table, sitting down to fix himself a large plate of food. “So, I have to hear about how you all managed to crack this latest case. Especially your part of the story, Pauline. Did your grandmama give you a hard time working this case, Felicity?” he asked.

  Felicity laughed. “Actually, Dad, Grandmama was really helpful. So was Kendell.”

  “What’s the news on Lonnie and Lark?” Iris asked.

  “Awaiting their court dates from the comfort of a local jail house,” Felicity said. “Turns out Lark was a notary as her day job, so she was easily able to create a fake will. And her brother worked at the same firm as Barbara’s lawyer, so she got her brother to convince Barbara’s lawyer that the woman had updated her will and sent it in while he was out of town. So, now Lark’s brother is possibly going to lose his license. Lark is giving names of other buyers Barbara dealt with in the past in an attempt to get a lighter sentence, so they’re going to probably be able to get a lot of the stolen jewelry back that Barbara has been selling over the past several years.”

  “I cannot believe the patience of that old woman,” Mr. Overton said.

  “Yeah, for real,” Iris agreed. “She waited…how long before she started selling that jewelry?”

  “Almost fifty years,” Felicity said. “And she moved across the country too. Police out in the Midwest had given up the search for the lost jewelry nearly twenty-five years ago. Barbara put a lot of people out of business—she hit up mostly family-owned places. She had only just started selling the jewelry about a year ago from what the police can tell based off her inventory book we found. So, most all of the stolen jewelry was in her paintings. A lot of it is going to be returned to the families who lost it.”

  “That’s pretty remarkable,” Samantha said.

  “So, Felicity,” Kendell began. “Have you heard from Sheldon whether or not any of the paintings he wanted didn’t have stolen jewelry in them? He really wanted to keep some of his mom’s paintings.”

  “As a matter of fact, yes,” Felicity said with a smile. “He found a self-portrait she had done that is jewelry-free, as well as a landscape painting. He was glad his mom had done at least some paintings without her stolen goods. He’ll be able to keep those in memory of his mom. Although, I think it’s a little bittersweet finding out your mom was some famous, unmasked jewelry thief.”

  “Well, you girls did a great job on this one,” Samantha said, then shook her head. “Mom, you’re getting too old for this sort of stuff.”

  “Age is only a number, dear,” Pauline said.

  They heard Dot growling and looked over to see the little dog playing with a shoe. “Grandmama…is that what I think it is?” Felicity asked.

  Pauline smiled. “You mean Lonnie’s shoe?” she asked. “Well, I think that after helping us catch the bad guys that my little Dot deserved a take-home prize.”

  “You stole the man’s shoe!” Kendell exclaimed, slapping her forehead in disbelief.

  “To be fair, he tried to steal his stepbrother’s entire inheritance. Besides, I’m pretty sure the local prison will provide him with his own pair of shoes. He’s not going to need it where he’s going,” Pauline declared.

  “Oh, Jefferson’s here!” Felicity exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and hurrying toward the driveway to meet Jefferson as he pulled up.

  Kendell saw Pauline smile at this. Kendell knew that Pauline’s intentions of coming to Georgia had been very personal. She had wanted to make sure her granddaughter was okay. That she wasn’t pushing this nice guy away. It seemed like Pauline’s mission had been a success.

  15

  Kendell rolled out of bed the following morning, still feeling incredibly stuffed after the feast she had enjoyed at the Overton household. She felt a little groggy after the immense amount of fried food had put her into a deep slumber. While Kendell was never opposed to trying new foods, her usual cuisine was much more fat-free. She was a salad type woman. Not a fried appetizer followed by a fried meal type. But it had been a worthwhile experience.

  She rubbed her eyes and headed to the hall bath to shower. She knew that Pauline had briefly mentioned something about catching a flight to their next destination, and just like Pauline, she had left out all the details such as when the flight was leaving and, of course, where they would be heading. So, she decided to just be ready to go.

  After a shower and taking time to dry her hair, she promptly got dressed and was greeted by the smell of bacon frying. More fried food, she thought but smiled. Their last three destinations had been in southern states, so a part of her was growing quite accustomed to the southern diet. She slipped out of the bathroom and was greeted by a jumpy Jefferson, who smiled and hurried past her. Evidently, he had politely been waiting to go to the bathroom. He hadn’t even knocked.

  Kendell laughed at him as he scurried into the bathroom and shut the door, shaking his head in embarrassment. She headed into the kitchen, where she spied Felicity making breakfast. “Ooh, pancakes!” Kendell exclaimed excitedly as Felicity poured the freshly-mixed batter onto the pan.

  “I like blueberries in mine,” Felicity said.

  “Same!” Kendell exclaimed excitedly. “Mmm…blueberry pancakes, bacon, and eggs? Breakfast of champions.”

  Felicity laughed. “Grandmama tells me you have a flight to catch in a couple of hours, so I thought I’d give you a good sendoff.”

  “Well, I appreciate it,” Kendell said, sitting at the counter to watch Felicity as she finished up.

  Jefferson joined them shortly, plopping down by Kendell. “So, Kendell, how have you enjoyed Georgia?”

  “Quite a bit, actually,” Kendell said with a smile. “The people here are friendlier than just about anyone I’ve ever met. And you guys have been so hospitable. And I appreciate you, Felicity, giving me some advice on my career. I’m definitely going to take some of that into consideration.”

  Felicity grinned. “Glad I could be of service.”

  Dot suddenly came scampering out of the back room, barking and yelping excitedly as she discovered the luring smell of bacon. Kendell laughed. “Well, good morning to you too, Dot,” she said, looking up in time to see Pauline slowly making her way ou
t of Felicity’s bedroom, yawning loudly and unapologetically.

  “Morning!” Kendell said as the woman made her way over to the kitchen table.

  “Good morning, dear,” Pauline said. “Do I smell coffee?”

  Felicity put the last of the pancakes onto the large plate she had sitting out. “I’ll make you a cup,” she said, hurrying over to the coffee pot.

  “So, Pauline, what time does our flight leave?” Kendell asked.

  “Yours leaves in about three hours,” Pauline said. “Mine doesn’t leave for another two days.”

  Kendell frowned. “We’re going separately?”

  “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get us on the same flight,” Pauline moaned. “Plus, I wouldn’t mind spending another day with my granddaughters. But I needed to go ahead and get you on a flight so that you could check into our suite, otherwise they’ll give it away, and this is a trip I’ve very much been looking forward to.”

  Kendell grinned. “Where are we going this time?”

  “My dear, we’re going to Paris,” Pauline said, and Kendell’s stomach fluttered.

  “Paris!” Kendell exclaimed. “Oh, wow!”

  “You be sure to pick me up from the airport, now,” Pauline insisted.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t want to go first, Pauline? I can wait two more days, if you’d rather go,” Kendell said.

  “Oh, I’m quite fine spending a little bit more time at home with the family,” Pauline said. “Plus, I know you know a little bit of French, so I think you’d probably fare better on your own for a couple of days than I would. I’d be completely lost.”

  “You know French?” Felicity asked.

  “A little,” Kendell said. “I did a semester abroad in college.”

  “I bet that was fun,” Felicity said.

  “It was,” Kendell said. “When we were in Kenya, we met a French couple at Giraffe Manor, so it was fun getting a refresher course talking to them.”

  “Well, I imagine being in Paris, France, will be an even grander refresher,” Jefferson said, fixing himself a plate.