A Haunted Theft (A Lin Coffin Mystery Book 4)

by J A Whiting

  “Maybe I’m just blowing it out of proportion. Maybe I don’t need to worry?”

  Lin stifled a groan of exasperation. “Can you tell us what happened to make you feel worried?”

  Mary took another sip of tea. “You know I work at the museum. I thought it would be a good part-time summer job. I major in history and thought it would be a good fit to be a volunteer so I could share my knowledge of the island. When I found out there was going to be a Lightship basket exhibition, I contacted Martha Hillman.” Mary winced when she said the dead woman’s name. “I can’t believe she died. Martha accepted my offer to volunteer and after the first weeks, she decided to pay me. It was just a little money, but I was happy that Martha was pleased enough with my work there that she wanted to pay me.” Mary pushed her hair back over her shoulder. “I teach the basket classes and work in my mother’s shop sometimes. I have a little job at a coffee shop in town, too, just a few hours a week.”

  “You’re busy.” Lin smiled trying to be reassuring.

  “I like to keep busy. I have a lot of energy. I’m super busy when I’m at school so I like to have different things to do in the summer.” Sadness or worry pulled at the corners of Mary’s mouth.

  “How was Martha to work for?” Viv asked.

  A muscle in Mary’s cheek twitched. “She was okay.”

  “Okay?” Viv held Mary’s eyes.

  “Ms. Hillman was sort of mean. She was never very nice to anyone. Criticized people’s work, was always correcting them. I tried to stay out of her way.” Mary took a gulp from her mug. “At first, I thought that Ms. Hillman was so smart and hardworking and dedicated to the museum. She was all of those things, but she had an edge to her. People walked on eggshells around her.”

  “Did she frighten you?” Lin wondered if Mary’s fear had to do with Martha, but dismissed the idea since Martha was dead. How could she cause Mary any worry now?

  “I was always afraid I wasn’t doing the right thing. She made me nervous.”

  “Is that what you wanted to tell us?” Viv asked. “That Martha scared you?”

  “Yes. Well, no.” Mary shook her head. “That was just part of it.”

  Although Lin wanted Mary to just come out and say what she needed to tell them, she knew that the girl had to reveal things in her own way.

  “There was a woman who worked at the museum who I got along well with. She talked to me about other places she’d worked, where she’d gone to school and what she’d studied. She gave me advice.” Mary screwed up her face. “Leading up to the basket exhibition, everyone got really busy. Tempers flared now and then. This woman seemed especially stressed out. I think Ms. Hillman was picking at her. I almost got the impression that she wanted this other woman to fail. Ms. Hillman seemed jealous or envious or something, almost like she hated her. I think she wanted a reason to get rid of her.”

  Lin asked even though she assumed who it was. “What was the woman’s name?”

  “Avery Holden.”

  “She got fired?”

  “Yes. Ms. Hillman fired her. It was late one night. They were in Ms. Hillman’s office. Everyone else was gone. The place was nearly dark. They were screaming at each other.”

  “Could you hear what they were saying?” Viv’s eyes were wide.

  “Just a word, here and there. I couldn’t make sense of it.”

  “Can you remember any of the words you heard?” Lin wondered what might cause the two women to be shouting at one another.

  Mary’s face clouded. “They said something about the baskets. I heard them mention Nathan Long. Martha screamed something about how dare Avery do such a thing. I didn’t understand what the argument was about. It didn’t sound like the fight had anything to do with Avery’s job performance.” Mary shrugged. “Avery didn’t come back to the museum after that.”

  Viv tilted her head to the side. “Why were you there so late?”

  Mary swallowed and then spoke quickly. “After I’d left, I realized that I’d placed some of the historical instructional panels in the wrong sequence. I was afraid that Ms. Hillman would be angry. I decided to go back and see if the museum was still open. I thought some people might be working late since the exhibit opening was only a day away.”

  “The door was open?” Lin asked.

  “The front door was locked, but there’s a door at the rear that the employees use. It was open. I was so happy that the door was unlocked. I hurried inside. It was eerie in there. I didn’t want to turn on any lights. The red security lights were on so I could see okay. I went to fix the displays. It only took a few minutes. Just as I was about to leave, I heard the screaming. It scared me. At first, I listened because I wondered if someone might need help. I don’t know how long I stood there. I should have just rushed away.”

  “Did they see you in the museum when they were arguing?” Lin could see Mary’s chest rising and falling.

  “I went to the front door. You can exit even when it’s locked. Just as I opened the door, Avery stormed out of Martha’s office. Martha came out right on Avery’s heels. We all made eye contact with each other and I flew out the door and down the steps.”

  “They didn’t say anything to you?”

  Mary shook her head.

  “What about the next day? Or later in the week?”

  “No. Avery is living in the studio apartment behind my mother’s shop. We haven’t spoken about that night. We avoid the subject. I don’t see her much. At the museum, Ms. Hillman would glare at me, but she didn’t say anything to me either about that night.”

  “So their fight scared you,” Viv said.

  “I’m feeling afraid.” Mary’s eyes filled up.

  Lin’s heart sped up. “Did you hear anything else that Avery and Martha were saying?”

  “No.” A tear slipped from Mary’s eye and floated down her cheek.

  Nicky jumped down off the chair and then leaped up on the sofa next to Mary where he snuggled against her. The young woman ran her hand over the dog’s back.

  “There’s something else.” Mary took quick looks at Viv and Lin. “When I was running down the steps of the museum, I smacked right into Nathan Long. He was coming up the steps toward me. I nearly screamed from surprise. I pushed away from him and darted down the street.”

  Viv said, “Nathan must have gone into the museum. He must have found out that Martha and Avery had a fight.”

  Lin leaned forward. “Did Nathan ever speak to you about that evening?”

  Mary’s face hardened. “He scares me. I hate him. The very next day … he told me that it would be in my best interests if I forgot everything I heard and saw that night.”

  Lin’s heart jumped into her throat.

  19

  Lin pulled up to Claire Rollins’s house, let the dog out of the passenger side of the truck, and removed her tools from the back bed of the vehicle. She yawned as she and Nicky walked around to the rear of the property. It had been a late night and the alarm had gone off bright and early.

  After their talk last night, Lin, Viv, and Nicky walked Mary Frye through Nantucket town to the door of her mother’s shop. Lacey lived in the apartment on the second floor of the building and Mary wanted to go home and go to bed so that she could sober up.

  On returning to Viv’s house, Viv and Lin discussed what Mary had told them about the fight between Martha Hillman and Avery Holden and how she ran right into Nathan Long when hurrying out of the museum. Unable to reach any conclusions about who may have stolen the basket and who might have killed Martha, Lin left her cousin’s house with Nicky and headed home to her cottage where she fell into bed exhausted from their attempts to determine the guilty party.

  Claire was sitting on her deck holding a Bloody Mary and wearing a large straw hat and a pair of aviator frame sunglasses. “Oh, I forgot it was gardening day. Want a drink?”

  Lin preferred to maintain professional relations with clients and thought it best not to become too friendly with them so she declined th
e offer of a beverage. “Thanks, but I need to keep on schedule today.” She smiled and said breezily, “Lots to do.”

  Claire removed her legs from the deck chair they had been resting on and stood up. She stretched and then downed the liquid in her glass. “I could use another. I’ll be a good girl and wait. But not too long.” Claire’s blonde curls were as bouncy as ever and they tumbled over her forehead as she made her way down the steps to the yard. “What are you doing in the garden today?”

  Lin explained the work that was to be done in Claire’s yard, all the while eyeing the young woman who seemed to have had more than one Bloody Mary already that morning. She noted how odd it was that she’d met two people in the past twelve hours who’d had too much to drink. Talking nonstop, Claire followed Lin around while she did her work.

  At one point, Lin marveled at how the woman barely needed to come up for breath as she chattered on and on jumping from one topic to another without much encouragement at all. Lin grunted and “mm-hmmed” occasionally to convey some hints of interest, but realized quickly that Claire didn’t need anything from her to keep rattling on.

  Claire plopped down on the grass next to Nicky and stroked his fur. “Such a nice dog.” She continued to run her hand over the dog’s back. “Maybe I should get one.”

  “You like dogs?” Lin knelt by a bed and pulled weeds from between the flowers.

  “I love them.” Claire adjusted her glasses. “I suppose I’m too lazy to take care of one though.”

  “Do you work?” Lin thought that Claire wanted attention so she put effort into making conversation.

  Claire snorted. She threw her head back and laughed. She took on the exaggerated tone of a haughty rich person. “My dear, I don’t work.” Claire let out a sigh. “People don’t think I work, but putting on this front is a heck of a lot of effort.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Lin glanced at the woman, and to be friendly, asked some questions about her life.

  “I grew up in North Carolina. My father ran out on my mom when I was two. We never had two nickels to rub together, just dirt poor.” Claire removed her hat and put it on the lawn next to her. “My poor mom worked so many jobs, lousy jobs, didn’t pay squat. I decided when I was young that I wasn’t going to poor ever again.”

  Lin moved to another part of the flower bed. “How did you meet your husband?”

  “We met at his firm. I worked there. And no, I wasn’t his secretary. I was a lawyer. We were in a meeting and I caught his attention.”

  “I didn’t know that you are a lawyer.” Lin pulled out some plants that weren’t thriving.

  “Was.” Claire slipped onto her back and rested in the warm sun. “I hated that job. Thank God Teddy saved me from a life of misery.”

  “How long were you married?”

  “A little less than two years.” Claire shook her head. “I know people mock me for marrying someone so much older. They say I was only after his money. It wasn’t that. Well, it was partly that, but I really cared for Teddy. He was kind to me.”

  Lin sat back on her heels and turned her head to her client wondering if Claire was revealing personal things because she’d been having drinks with breakfast.

  “Now I’m alone.”

  “Do you have family?”

  “I only had my mom. She died a few years ago, before I married Teddy.” Claire’s voice was mournful. “I bought her a small house. She was secure. But I never got the chance to show her what having lots of money felt like.”

  “Do you have friends who might like to visit you?”

  “Believe it or not, I don’t really have friends. I have plenty of acquaintances from the boards I’m on, from the charities I’m involved with, but those people only associate with me because I have money.”

  Lin said, “That can’t be the reason for everyone you know.”

  “Oh, it is. It’s a funny crowd. Money makes their world go round. I play the game. We mingle and make pleasantries, but I honestly don’t have a real friend.” Claire kicked her shoes off and rubbed her toes in the grass. “Are you married?”

  Lin shook her head.

  “How old are you?” Claire looked at Lin.

  “Twenty-nine.” Lin pulled out some flowering annuals and dug new holes to replace them.

  “I’m thirty-five.” Claire sat up. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  “Yes. I just moved back here in June.” Lin removed some impatiens from their little pots. “That’s when I met him.” Lin told Claire what Jeff did.

  “Oh, he’s a craftsman, someone who works with his hands. I admire that. I wish I had talent like that.” Claire had a wistful expression on her face. “Did you get to see the antique basket? Before it was stolen?”

  Lin sat on the grass. “I was at the exhibition the night it went missing.”

  “So you didn’t see it?”

  Lin gave a shake of her head.

  A faraway look showed in Claire’s eyes. “It was beautiful. I stood there for a long time and just stared at it. I imagined the person who made it. Moving the wood in and out. He or she must have been so proud of it.” The woman ran her hand over the lush lawn. “It is believed the basket was made by a member of the Wampanoag tribe. You know they were in Massachusetts? Here on the island and on Martha’s Vineyard?”

  “Yes. In other parts of New England, too.”

  “You’ll think I’m silly, but I’m sure that basket was made here.”

  “Why do you think that?” Lin eyed Claire.

  “It’s just a feeling I get.” Claire’s golden curls looked almost white in the direct sunlight. “It made me sad that the basket was in a museum off-island. It should be here. This is where it belongs.”

  Lin narrowed her eyes wondering if Claire might have wanted the basket to stay on Nantucket so badly that she stole it. “How do you think someone got it out of the museum? You’re a board member. You’re familiar with the layout of the place.”

  Claire didn’t hesitate. “Anyone who knows the museum knew that the employee entrance was unlocked during operating hours. Hurry in, put it in a garbage bag, hurry outside with it like it’s just filled with trash. It would have been easy. Do it right before the exhibition started the evening hours.” She gave a shrug. “It’s not rocket science.”

  Lin remembered the feeling of dread that had come over her when she was in the basement of the museum with Nathan Long. “Is there a staircase from the basement up to the upper floor?”

  “Yes. It goes up to the back of the building, right near the employee entrance. Why?”

  “I wondered if someone might have taken the basket out through the basement. I didn’t see a staircase when I was down there.”

  Claire looked surprised. “Why were you down there?”

  Lin explained about being shown the basement when she’d been at the museum to give an estimate for the garden work. “Nathan told me the plans eventually called for a kitchen in the basement to serve the outdoor café.”

  A flash of something passed over Claire’s face. “You were with Nathan, huh?” Her voice took on a hard edge. “Did he make a move on you when you were down there?”

  Lin’s eyes widened like saucers. “A move? No. God. Why would you say that?”

  Claire pulled her knees up and hugged them. “No reason.” Her tone softened.

  “Claire, why did you ask that?” Lin asked.

  “I’m just kidding. All the women love Nathan. He’s very attractive. He’s full of life.” She put her sun hat back on. “I’m really hot. I think I need another drink.” Claire stood up and started back to the house, but stopped and turned to Lin. “It was good talking to you.” She hesitated for a moment, and then said, “Would you like to come by for dinner some night?”

  Lin’s immediate impulse was to make up an excuse, but she changed her mind. “Sure. That’d be nice.”

  Claire smiled and walked into the house. Lin watched her go.

  When Claire talked about the antique basket, a
strange feeling had come over Lin, one that she couldn’t quite place. The sensation almost seemed to be a combination of loss and sadness, the very same feelings that she got from the Wampanoag ghost.

  Nicky gave Lin’s arm a nudge and she reached over to scratch his ears.

  Lin wondered about what Claire had said about Nathan. Why did she ask if he’d made a move on her? She’d said that the women loved him and how he was so attractive. The comments made her feel unsettled for some reason. “What do you think, Nick?” She gave the little dog a hug and just as he licked her face, a wave of cold engulfed her.

  Lin slowly raised her eyes to look over by the house. Sebastian Coffin stood staring at her.

  In a moment, he disappeared.

  20

  The sun was setting when Viv helped Lin carry tools from the back of the truck to the yard space behind the cultural museum. She dropped them onto the ground and wiped her forehead. “Ugh. I don’t know how you can work outside all day. The heat and humidity would kill me. Never mind the dirt and the bugs and the snakes…. ugh.” She screwed up her face in distaste.

  Lin laughed. “I know how you prefer the air conditioning, but look how strong I’ve gotten from all this work.” She flexed her arm muscle.

  Viv frowned. “You can keep your muscle. That’s no incentive for me. I definitely made the right career choice.”

  On the way over to the museum, Lin had chattered away telling Viv about the conversation with Claire Rollins. “She seems lost and alone. She certainly didn’t have an easy start to life with her father abandoning her and her mother. I can understand her drive to make something of herself.”

  “Well, she lucked out big time having Mr. Money-Bags fall for her. How come that never happened to me?”

  “Claire honestly seemed to care for Teddy.” Lin shook her head. “When she asked me that question about Nathan making a move on me, an awful feeling ran through my body. I think what she said about Nathan is some kind of a clue. What could it mean?” She glanced at her cousin sitting across from her in the passenger seat of the truck.

  For the rest of the drive to the museum, the girls surmised what was going on and why Claire’s comment could have made Lin so uneasy, and they came up empty.