Murder by Proxy

by Suzanne Young

Edna, startled at this new revelation that Karissa suspected Grant and Anita of having an affair, patted Karissa's knee but didn't know what to say. She also had not realized that the dead woman and Karissa had been such good friends. She waited and allowed Karissa to gain her composure before asking, “What made you think there was something going on between Grant and Anita?”

  Karissa gulped down another sob. Looking sheepish, she said, “It was probably my overwrought imagination, brought on by my condition.” She looked down at her swollen belly. “I realized how foolish I was being after I heard Lia's explanation.” Karissa wiped her eyes and blew her nose into the tissue.

  “Which was?” Edna prompted her daughter-in-law.

  “Lia was probably closer to Anita than anyone after Michele died. She told me that she had also noticed Anita's strange moodiness. It was when Lia and Anita drove up to Eldorado Springs to go rock climbing. That was on a Saturday, the day Lia met a new guy. I guess that happened about a week before I got up the courage to talk with her.”

  Wanting to verify what she already suspected, Edna said, “Was this new guy she met named Yonny Pride?”

  Karissa gave a small laugh. “Yes, that was his name. She thought he was really hot.”

  Edna chuckled. “I expect he turns a head or two.” Then, soberly, she led Karissa back to the subject. “Besides meeting Mister Wonderful, what else did Lia have to say?”

  Karissa looked out the French doors at the back yard, seeming to be deep in thought. After nearly a minute, she began to tell Lia's story. “The three of them ended up climbing together most of that day, and then they all went to have a drink someplace. Yonny told them he had just arrived in town from New York and was taking care of a friend's house, another climber who has gone on an extended climbing trip to the Himalayas. Lia was pretty taken with Yonny right off, so she talked Anita into going back the next day to climb some more, hoping to run into him again. On the drive up that morning, she decided to find out what was bothering Anita, so she prodded until Anita finally confessed that she had asked Rice for a divorce.”

  Karissa turned to look at Edna with a small frown. “This is where it gets kind of weird.” She paused before going on, as if to figure out how to tell the story. “Yonny wasn't around when they reached the climb site, so Lia and Anita started up the rock face. They hadn't gotten far when Anita's rope broke. She fell about twenty feet and was just lying there. As it turned out, she only had the wind knocked out of her and wasn't hurt badly, but Lia didn't know that at the time. Almost immediately, Yonny showed up. Lia didn't know where he'd come from. She thought maybe he'd heard her scream, but however it happened, suddenly there he was. He picked Anita up and drove them to the emergency room in his friend's Bronco.”

  Edna thought about how unwise it had been to move Anita, but that thought was pushed from her mind by another. An SUV. He wasn't driving an SUV Wednesday at the funeral, she remembered. He'd had to fold his tall frame into a compact car. Thoughts swirled in her mind, but she didn't want to interrupt Karissa's story.

  “Anita was examined and had a few scratches patched up, but they were able to take her home that day. At the hospital, while they were waiting for her to be released, Yonny and Lia took a look at Anita's rope and discovered it had been cut. The end was only partially frayed at the break and it was pretty obvious that the other strands had been cleanly sliced.”

  Edna gasped. “Are they certain the rope belonged to Anita? Could she have borrowed it or picked up someone else's rope by mistake?” Edna herself wanted to make certain of what she'd just learned.

  Karissa nodded. “Oh, yes. She bought her own rope when she started taking climbing lessons, just like Lia had. Climbers always take their ropes home and go over them carefully after each climb. They need to make sure the ropes haven't begun to wear or weaken in any way.” She shuddered. “Their lives depend on those ropes.”

  Edna frowned. “So she would have checked her equipment after Saturday's climb?”

  Karissa shrugged. “I guess nobody knows for sure, but she certainly should have. There's the chance she got distracted. Maybe she and Rice were arguing, and she didn't go over her rope, or at least not as carefully as she should have.”

  Edna got the impression by Karissa's tone that she didn't think it likely Anita would be so careless. Edna tended to agree as she urged Karissa back to the story. “Did they go to the police?”

  Karissa shook her head. “No. Lia said Anita insisted they take her back to her house. Anita thought it was possible, even probable, that Rice cut her rope. She said he was angry and hurt when she told him she wanted a divorce. Lia and Yonny told Anita she was being stupid, that Rice could have caused her serious injury, but Anita insisted it would only make things worse for her if they brought the police in on it. Anita said she would handle it and refused to talk about it any more.”

  Karissa shifted on the couch, trying for a more comfortable position. Edna stood and helped rearrange the pillows before going to get her daughter-in-law a glass of water. When she returned, she noticed a faint trace of moisture on Karissa's upper lip.

  “Do you want me to help you to bed?”

  Karissa shook her head and sipped the water. “No, thanks. I'm fine. Just a little twinge.” She smiled up at Edna, handing her the glass. “It's no easier lying in bed than out here.”

  Edna set the tumbler on the coffee table and went back to her end of the sofa, rubbing Karissa's feet after settling into the corner. She wanted to hear more about what happened the day of Anita's climbing incident. “Do you know if she ever confronted Rice about cutting the rope?”

  “According to Lia, she didn't. By the time they dropped Anita at home, Rice wasn't there and didn't return for several days. We figured he may have been really angry or maybe scared, but also he might just have been away on business. Everything was so confusing about that time. Grant and Lia and I helped Anita move into a condo in Lia's complex a couple of days later, during the time Rice was away. I don't know if she ever mentioned it to Grant, but at that time I didn't know anything about Anita's fall. It was almost a week later before I finally got up the nerve to ask Lia if she thought Grant and Anita were having an affair.”

  “I don't think you have anything to worry about, my dear. I can tell that Grant loves you very much.”

  Karissa showed a weak smile and nodded. “I know. I'm ashamed of my suspicions now.”

  Quiet for a moment, Edna continued to stroke Karissa's feet through the knitted blanket, knowing how good it felt when she had been pregnant and Albert had massaged her own feet. She thought about the story Karissa had just told her and tried to fit it into what she already knew about the people involved. She still had too many questions and not enough answers. “Did Rice know Anita was moving out? Could that be why he stayed away those few days?”

  Karissa shook her head. “I don't know. I don't even know exactly how long he was gone or if he went to stay with friends or if he left town on business. I heard from Lia that a couple of days after we'd settled Anita into her new place, she told Lia she felt like someone was watching her. She said it wasn't anything she could put her finger on, just a vague feeling that was making her jittery. She was also getting calls after work and during the night on both her cell and home phones. There was no pattern to the times the calls would come or anything. The phone would ring, and when she picked it up, no one would be on the line. Anita had caller ID and apparently had also tried getting the calling number by dialing star-six-nine. The only thing that showed on the caller ID box was „out of area,' and when she tried the six-nine bit, she got a recording that said the number couldn't be reached.”

  “It sounds like the caller had some sort of block on his line or was calling from a cell phone with a long distance number,” Edna observed. “Did Anita ever report any of this to the phone company?”

  Again, Karissa shook her head. “According to Lia, Anita said she wanted to see what she could find out for herself. Lia thought Anita was still
covering for Rice. If it was Anita's husband who was harassing her, she didn't want to make matters worse by bringing any sort of official charges against him.”

  Edna wondered if it could have been someone other than Rice who was bothering Anita. “Did she mention her concerns to anyone besides Lia, do you know?”

  Karissa frowned and shook her head. “No, I don't know, but Lia said the day after Anita told her about the phone calls was when her parents were in that accident. I talked to Lia the day after the Colliers' funeral and she hadn't seen or spoken to Anita since the service.”

  Edna thought about Lia's own funeral, which led her to think about Yonny. She then remembered Wayne Freedman's comment that Yonny had picked up the phone when Wayne had tried to call Anita. “Did Lia tell you any more about Yonny? Were they seeing each other pretty regularly?”

  “They might have been,” Karissa said, her brow creasing as she thought back. “We didn't talk much about her, only about Anita. She must have said something about him, though, because I remember Lia mentioned Yonny worked at a shelter for homeless animals. It's where he got his dog.” She shrugged. “Sorry, but that's about all I know.”

  Edna thought of Yonny's comment about visiting the veterinary school in Fort Collins, when Karissa shifted nervously, drawing Edna's attention.

  “I think there might be something else we need to discuss,” she said, her cheeks darkening in a blush.

  “Oh?” Edna inclined her head and raised her eyebrows. Her mind full of thoughts of Anita, she wondered what else Karissa would be so nervous about.

  “I want you to know that I didn't steal Grant away from Michele.”

  Edna felt her eyes widen in surprise, and Karissa immediately lowered her own gaze. Her face was very red as she stammered, “I know you wouldn't ask about Grant and me, but I don't want you thinking I'm some sort of home wrecker. If you have questions, or if there's anything I can tell you … ” Her voice trailed off as she stared at her hands and picked at the polish on her fingernails.

  Edna was quiet for a long moment, her mind whirling. There were so many things she wanted to know about her son's second marriage, but she never dreamed Karissa would open that particular door. The long silence must have disconcerted Karissa who raised her eyes slowly to meet Edna's, her cheeks still glowing.

  “Well,” Edna hesitated for a few heartbeats. “Since you brought it up, I had wondered why you married so soon after Michele's accident.” Edna softened her voice, hoping Karissa wouldn't think her too accusatory.

  “That was Grant's idea. Since we were planning to marry anyway, he said he saw no reason to wait. He said Jillian needed a mother.”

  That certainly sounds like Grant, Edna thought. He had never had the patience to wait for something, once he made up his mind to it. As she thought of his wish to provide a mother for Jillian, she thought back to when he had been young and she'd had to go to the hospital for an extended stay. Had he been affected by her absence? Were those past memories the reason he had rushed into this marriage?

  As if reading her mind, Karissa said, “We'd been in love long before Michele's accident.” Hurrying to explain, she added, “We used to eat lunch in the cafeteria around the same time. I ate lunch late because I used to fill in at the reception desk between noon and one o'clock. Grant preferred to eat lunch when the room was empty and quiet. Often, we were the only ones in the lunchroom. I liked him right off, but I knew he was married. We talked about a lot of different things and got to know each other pretty well.”

  “Did he talk about problems between Michele and him?” Edna hoped Grant hadn't been disloyal to his wife.

  Karissa's eyes widened. “Oh, no. He never said a word about his marriage. It was just something I felt. Maybe it was something I wanted to feel, but I had a strong suspicion that he wasn't happy at home. He's such a wonderful man. I never thought he would feel the same about me as I do about him.”

  At that moment, Edna thought Karissa looked particularly beautiful. She understood how her son could have fallen in love with this woman. Mentally shaking herself out of Karissa's unwitting spell, Edna said, “When did you first talk about your attraction for each other?”

  “It was at the company's New Year's Eve party last year. I only went because I got roped into working on the party committee. I don't really like big parties, and I didn't have anyone to go with. I didn't expect to see Grant there, but he told me later that Anita insisted he attend. She said the people in his department were getting awards, and he had to be there. She sympathized that Michele had been buried only three weeks before but said he need only stay until after the ceremonies. He ended up staying quite a bit longer than that.” Karissa's self-conscious giggle ended with a sharp intake of breath, as she bent forward, clutching her bulging belly.

  “Oh, dear. What's the matter?” Edna was on her feet in an instant, leaning over her daughter-in-law. Her pulse raced with fear when Karissa didn't respond immediately.

  “I'll be fine,” the young woman finally stuttered, “but maybe I should get to bed.”

  Slowly and very gently, Edna helped Karissa to her feet and down the hall to the master bedroom. Edna's worries increased as she realized she was supporting most of her daughter-in-law's weight.

  “Shall I call your doctor?” she asked, once Karissa was lying in bed and she had pulled the comforter up to her shoulders.

  “No, I'll be fine. If you could just shut out the sun … ”

  Edna went immediately to pull the drapes against the afternoon sun that spilled into the room. With her hand on the pull cord, she stopped and drew an involuntary breath.

  “What is it?” Karissa asked from the bed, moving as if to rise to the aid of her mother-in-law. “What's wrong?”

  Edna nodded toward the stained-glass adornment hanging in the middle of the large window. The sun reflected through the swirling shapes and unusual colors. “Where did you get this? I saw almost an exact copy of it this morning.”

  “You must be mistaken. That was a wedding present from Anita. She makes them, and each is uniquely hers. You see, she draws her own designs and special-orders her glass because she's very particular about the colors. She's hoping to start her own business and get out of what she calls the sales racket.”

  “Has she given away many of these or sold them, do you know?”

  “I do know. She wouldn't sell them. She's trying to build up her inventory. We're the only ones she's ever given one of her creations to. Not even Lia had one.”

  Edna didn't want to distress her daughter-in-law by disagreeing with her, but having an artist's eye herself, she was certain the glass art she had seen in the window of Yonny Pride's cabin had been made by Anita Collier.

  Seventeen

  He was lying to me all along, she thought, leaving Karissa to sleep and heading for her own room to call Ernie. If Yonny had one of Anita's glass pictures, and Edna was willing to bet it didn't belong to the absent owner of the cottage, then Yonny must know Anita a lot better than he had admitted.

  If it were true that Anita had known him for such a short time, as Lia had related to Karissa, then why would she turn to Yonny for help if, in fact, that is what she has done? Is she alive? Is she being held against her will? Why is her art hanging in his window?

  Edna thought back on her encounter of that morning. She hadn't felt particularly threatened by Yonny. She thought he seemed to be a caring sort of person. He was kind to his dog, and that certainly raised him in her estimation. His manner made her feel he might be slightly conceited, but he was not overly obvious or obnoxious about it. And he did have reason to be vain, she admitted to herself. He was a handsome young man, and women probably threw themselves at him. So why would he lie about knowing Anita?

  What would be his connection to Anita? The thought kept spinning around in her head as she listened to the phone ring on the other end of the line. Why didn't Ernie pick up? Had he turned off his cell phone's ringer so as not to disturb his wife in the hospital? With
that realization, she disconnected the call. She shouldn't disturb him. He had enough to worry about. She would go back to Eldorado Springs first thing in the morning and knock on Yonny's door. She'd find some excuse to get inside that house or straight out ask him about the stained glass.

  She went back to the living room, her head buzzing with too many questions. Sitting on the couch, she tried to work things out in her mind, but she was so tired. Fixing a throw pillow behind her head, she settled back and closed her eyes.

  “Gramma, Gramma, you missed all the fun.”

  Edna was startled awake by Jillian shaking her arm.

  “Leave your grandmother alone, Jilly. Can't you see she was asleep?” Grant's voice, sounding as if he were suppressing anger, came from behind Edna. “Put your coat away and go clean up. Then check to see if Karissa needs anything, please.”

  With her usual bouncy step, Jillian skipped off down the hall, calling to Karissa as she went.

  “Hello, Ma.” Grant lowered himself into the overstuffed chair across the coffee table from her. “Glad to see you made it home. I thought you wanted to go to the botanical gardens with us this afternoon.”

  Still groggy from being awakened so abruptly, Edna was saved from replying to her son's implied criticism by Jillian shouting down the hall.

  “Daddy, come quick.”

  His expression changed to alarm at the urgency in his daughter's tone. Pushing up from the chair, he ran down the hall. Edna followed, her heart skipping a beat.

  “What is it?” he asked, rushing into the bedroom.

  “I didn't mean to scare Jillybean,” Karissa smiled weakly, holding out a hand toward the girl. “It's really nothing to worry about. The baby's restless today, that's all. He or she just gave me a very big kick, and I'm afraid I yelped.” She tried to speak lightly, but Edna could see beads of perspiration on her brow and upper lip.

  Grant sat carefully on the side of the bed and took Karissa's hand. “Has this been going on all afternoon?” His glance hardened when he turned to look at his mother as if she were to blame for his wife's pain.