The Last Dance

by Sonia Parin

  Joshua looked up from the article. “And what would be her motive for murder?”

  Faith gave a firm nod. “Revenge. Marigold might have made a snide remark. People in her position tend to look down their noses. It’s a longshot. Abby likes longshots and I’ve come to appreciate them too because they allow me to be creative. For instance, if you look into Kelly Pierce’s work history, you might actually find she has murdered her previous employers.”

  Both Abby and Joshua stared at her, their eyes unblinking.

  “What?”

  Abby shrugged. “I had no idea you had such a devious mind.”

  Faith grinned. “I’m learning from the best.”

  Abby’s eyes widened.

  “Honestly. What?”

  “Nothing. Longshots are good. It makes us think outside the square.” Turning to Joshua, Abby asked, “How did the killer get their hands on the formaldehyde?”

  “We’re looking into it.” Once again, Joshua surprised her by sharing more information. “There are several local places stocking it.”

  “The hospital and the funeral home?” Abby asked as she wondered if Miffi would have had access to it. In reality, she didn’t want to think of her as being guilty and she couldn’t imagine her having any issues with Marigold, therefore, no motive for murder.

  “Yes. Those are the obvious ones. There’s also the science lab at the local school.”

  “You might want to find out if Laurie Meadows works at any of those places.”

  Joshua looked up at the whiteboard. “The cleaner… Any idea if she’s connected to Marigold?” Joshua asked.

  Abby shook her head. “I haven’t spoken with her, but she had the opportunity. I visited Miffi Howsen a couple of times and had access to the dress when Miffi stepped out of the room to get cigarettes. Laurie cleaned her house, so she had the run of the place. There’s also the possibility someone might have waited for Miffi to step out of the house.”

  “What made you think of the dress?” Joshua asked.

  “Isn’t Abby great? You usually have to wait for the coroner’s report and she just comes up with these wild ideas,” Faith piped in.

  Abby grinned. “You said she hadn’t ingested the poison. I remembered a poisoned dress used in a movie so I researched it to see if there was any truth to it. I also remember hearing something about that urban myth in that article.”

  “Killing someone with a poisoned dress rings a bell with me too,” Faith said. “I think I saw it on TV.”

  “Yes, I saw it on a popular police procedural show,” Abby agreed. “A bride died at the altar. She’d purchased her wedding dress second hand. It had been sold to the store by a devious funeral director who would steal the clothes from the deceased right before burial. The clothes had absorbed the formaldehyde used in the process of embalming. I actually had a hard time believing the chemical would seep through to the clothing, but I guess it’s possible.”

  Joshua nodded. “You’re probably thinking of it as a liquid, but it’s actually a gas.”

  Abby continued, “Then there’s the urban myth about the young girl who purchased a dress to wear to a dance. During the night, she complained of shortness of breath. Then she fainted and… died. Her dress had been removed from a body and recycled.”

  “I’m never buying second hand clothes again.” Faith held a finger up. “And, from now on, I’m washing everything I buy before wearing it.”

  Abby leaned against the table. “I guess you now have to find a solid motive.” Who had wanted Marigold Winthrop dead?

  Wadsworth appeared at the door to tell them afternoon tea would be served in the south lawn.

  “I hope one of you knows where the south lawn is,” Abby whispered.

  “Faith will have to help you out with that. I need to get back to work.”

  “Who’s next on your hit list?” Abby asked.

  “Laurie Meadows.”

  ***

  WADSWORTH HAD SET UP a table and chairs under the shade of an ancient looking oak tree. The sky had remained clear and the weather temperate enough for them to feel comfortable outdoors.

  “What do you know about James Winthrop?” Abby asked Charles.

  “He owns several race horses and does rather well for himself.”

  Faith admired her pretty tea cup as she asked, “Is there any truth to the rumors?”

  “Which ones?”

  “The ones about him pining for Marigold,” Faith said.

  Charles sat back as if shocked by the news. “Where did you hear that?”

  “Around.” Faith shrugged. “These scones are delectable.” Faith helped herself to another one and slathered it with fresh cream and strawberry jam thick with chunky pieces of strawberries.

  “I’ll tell Wadsworth you said so. He has a very light hand.”

  “He baked them?” When Charles nodded, Faith said, “A man of many talents. Does he iron your newspapers?”

  Charles chuckled. “I read my papers online. But, before the days of electronic devices, yes, he used to iron my daily paper.”

  Faith leaned in and told Abby, “It’s an old butler trick employed to make sure ink doesn’t stain his lordship’s fingers.” Faith licked some cream off her fingers. “So, Charles… You were upstairs for some time during the ball.”

  Charles shifted. “As a matter of fact, yes, I was.”

  “Were you, by any chance, getting rid of the evidence?”

  “Faith!”

  “What? Someone has to ask the tough questions.”

  Charles lifted his chin. “I wouldn’t hurt a fly and I think any number of people would confirm this.”

  “You’d say that.” Faith took a leisurely sip of her tea. “What about your annual hunting trips and duck shooting season? Or is it quail?”

  “Personally, I don’t take part in blood sports. Never have, never will. It’s all too bloodthirsty for my liking. I prefer archery and skeet shooting.”

  “Those can be deadly too,” Faith murmured. “Exactly why did you leave England?”

  Charles’ cup rattled on its saucer. He looked taken aback.

  Wadsworth appeared with a fresh pot of tea. “My Lord, I believe Miss O’Keefe is giving you the shakedown.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Pity Joshua couldn’t stick around,” Faith said. “He would have backed me up.”

  Wadsworth cleared his throat. “My Lord, there is a phone call for you.”

  “Thank you, Wadsworth,” Charles said and excused himself.

  Faith leaned in and whispered, “I knew we should have changed. Charles wore a different suit at lunch. What must he think of us?”

  Abby couldn’t help grinning. “Sometimes, I have trouble deciding if you’re being serious or not.”

  Faith flopped back in her chair. “It’s a legitimate concern. Charles obviously cares about appearances and he’s a stickler for tradition.”

  “Yes, his tradition. His habits. Not ours.”

  “As the saying goes, when in Rome…” Faith groaned. “Okay, I’ll settle for being a novelty. He must find us both very amusing.”

  “If you’re going to feel so self-conscious, then you should go change.”

  “Well, I can’t now. He’ll notice.” Sitting up, Faith said, “Hey, you didn’t ask why he left you out of the guest list.”

  “It somehow didn’t seem to be that important.” Finishing her tea, Abby sent Sebastian a text message. She didn’t want to think Harriet Winthrop had been pulling his strings. “Okay, I’ve just realized I’m on edge. Sebastian said Harriet Winthrop had requested to do an interview with me and here I am expecting to hear back about time and place when her daughter-in-law died only last night. I guess that means we kick back and relax for a while. Abby stretched her arms over her head. “Did you know there’s an indoor pool?”

  Faith’s mouth gaped open. “You’re kidding me. An indoor pool. How fancy is that? Last summer, my inflatable pool sprung a leak and I fixed it with duct tape. I�
��ll never want to move out of here.”

  Abby’s cell phone rang. “So much for relaxing. Hello, Joyce. What do you have for me?”

  “Nothing,” Joyce said. “Can you believe that? I can’t. It’s as if Laurie Meadows doesn’t exist.”

  Earlier, when she’d spoken with Joyce, Abby had asked if she could make discreet inquiries about Miffi’s cleaner in the hope that she might get some background information.

  Abby tried to sooth her. “But you’ve only been at it for a few hours.”

  “That’s usually long enough for me to know everything about someone,” Joyce complained.

  “Maybe she’s new in town.”

  “And maybe I’m losing my touch,” Joyce muttered.

  “Not to worry, I’ve passed on the information. Joshua should be able to pin her down.”

  “I doubt it,” Joyce said. “I’ve just returned from Miffi’s place and she has no idea where Laurie Meadows lives. She said Laurie came knocking on her door one day asking if she needed a house cleaner and Miffi decided to try her out but she never bothered with details because she pays her in cash. By the way, the police spoke with Miffi again. When I saw her, she’d already had several glasses of whisky.”

  “I assume Joshua has ways of locating people,” Abby mused. “Laurie must live locally. Otherwise, why would she get a job in town?”

  “Well, since you’ve shown an interest in her, I assume you’re trying to pin her down with something,” Joyce said. “Maybe she targeted Miffi because she knew she would have access to Marigold. Now, I want to know why she’d be interested in Marigold.”

  “Yes, you and I both. You can’t kill someone without a motive. But we can’t jump to conclusions,” Abby said and refrained from mentioning anything about the formaldehyde or the possibility that Laurie might have taken it from one of her places of employment.

  ***

  “HOW WAS YOUR swim?” Abby asked.

  “Wonderful. If I lived here, I could have a swim every day. Is it any wonder wealthy women look so good? Wadsworth didn’t even raise an eyebrow when I told him I didn’t have a bathing suit. Can you believe it? Charles keeps a stash of bathing suits in all sizes for his guests. Oh, and there’s a sauna. Do you think he’ll notice if I stay on?”

  Abby cleared her throat.

  Faith rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, you’ve had a breakthrough and want to ease into it without bursting my bubble of joy.”

  “No, I just needed to clear my throat.”

  Faith went to stand in front of the whiteboard. “Something has changed here.”

  “Yes, I added all your suppositions. You never know when they might come in handy. James Winthrop is a person of interest because he might have been in love with Marigold. I’ve spent the last couple of hours searching on-line for any social event photos that might suggest there had been something going on between them.” Abby spread out a few photos she had printed out. “What do you think? Is he making eyes at Marigold? Or are they simply sharing a moment of triumph and joy over their win at the races?”

  Faith looked through the rest of the images. “There’s definitely something going on. Even when Marigold is looking at the camera, James has his eyes on her.”

  Abby cupped her chin in her hand. “And that’s all we can do for now. If Joshua wants to, he can look into it. He’ll have the resources to piece together James’ whereabouts. Maybe he’ll come across something that smacks of coincidence.”

  “Well, we already know they were in the same place during those racing events and the dates are all fairly close together, but that makes sense because the major horse racing events are held during the Spring racing carnival.”

  Sighing, Abby sat back. “That only justifies being in the same place at the same time. Maybe we need to look for photos of them together at other times.” Abby looked up at the ceiling.

  Faith laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You. I can almost picture a thought bubble next your head. What’s going through your mind?”

  So many thoughts, she would need a week to catalogue them. What if one of those stray thoughts happened to lead her to a significant find and she missed it because she hadn’t considered it important enough? “I think Joshua likes the way we think. He might not admit it, but the fact he’s willing to let us look into the case means…” Abby shrugged. “Well, I don’t know what it means. I only hope we can be of help.”

  “He’s probably not allowed to employ such unorthodox methods. Anyway, what else have you got?” Faith asked.

  Abby hummed as she looked through her notes. “Oh, I started doing this but stopped halfway through.” She picked up her notebook and strode over to the whiteboard. “It’s a timeline for the dress.” She put a star next to Thursday and Friday. “Those are the days I went to Miffi’s house and I saw the dress. According to Miffi, Marigold came by on Friday to collect it.”

  Faith cupped her chin in her hand. “You’d think Marigold would have sent a minion.”

  Smiling, Abby said, “Is that what you think wealthy people do?”

  “Laugh all you like. Remember, Marigold didn’t spend that much time in this part of the world. She preferred to remain in the city. I’m assuming she didn’t really care to live in the country. After all, she had put in a lot of effort to marry someone who could take her away from it all.”

  “How sure are we about that?” Abby asked.

  “We’re not. We’re just assuming. Anyhow, since she didn’t like the countryside, why would she get in the car and drive into town if she didn’t really have to? I’ve never seen her at Joyce’s and I’ve never heard Joyce say Marigold had dropped by for coffee, so we can safely assume she usually stayed away town.”

  “Maybe she made the extra trip because she wanted to have a chat with Miffi,” Abby suggested. “Or, since she doesn’t like being in the country, maybe she simply wanted to get away from the Winthrop estate.”

  Faith clicked her fingers. “Yes, I like that. We know Harriet hasn’t talked to her in years. I imagine there’s only so much silent treatment a person can take.” Stepping back, Faith studied the whiteboard. “Okay. So, Marigold took the dress back to the Winthrop estate. Oh, that widens the net. Anyone living or working there might have tampered with the dress.”

  And that, Abby thought, took the heat off Miffi Howsen.

  “Are you trying to divert attention away from Miffi Howsen?” Faith asked.

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because you feel you owe her. After all, you were one of the select few to have a dress made by her. You probably feel indebted to her.”

  “For your information, she didn’t make my dress, she simply gave it a new lease of life.” Tapping her foot, Abby said, “I think that’s all we can do for now. The rest is up to Joshua. He needs to locate Miffi’s cleaner. Have you come up with any ideas why she’d want to kill Marigold?”

  Faith shrugged. “I don’t know anything about her. How young is young?”

  “I assume something along the lines of twenty. She’s studying…”

  Faith’s mouthed gaped open and her eyes widened. “We could revisit the idea of Marigold having a child out of wedlock during those years not accounted for,” Faith said. “Imagine if she gave the baby up for adoption and it turns out to be Laurie Meadows?”

  “Go on. You have a captive audience,” Abby encouraged. Joshua would no doubt laugh at the unorthodox conjecture. Or would he?

  “Okay. Here goes. Laurie Meadows spent years trying to track down her biological mother. Finally, she finds her and tells her the happy news. Marigold wants nothing to do with her. So, Laurie decides to punish her by killing her.”

  Abby tilted her head from side to side. “I actually like that. Remind me to ask Joshua if this is how he tosses ideas around with his officers.”

  Picking up the guest list, Faith said, “We have all these people to get through. I could make up a story about each and every one of them. I think
we can settle in for the rest of the month.”

  “That’s assuming it takes Detective Joshua Ryan that long to solve the case.”

  Faith grinned. “We could always ingratiate ourselves or become so indispensable to the household, Charles will never want us to leave…”

  Wadsworth cleared his throat. “Dinner will be served in an hour.”

  “That is definitely a hint,” Faith whispered. “He wants us to change for dinner.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “A FULL SCREEN TV at the press of a button.”

  “Are you still going on about that?” Abby asked as she buttered her toast the next morning.

  Faith sipped her coffee and frowned. “This is what I don’t get. Charles has this huge house with all these rooms, each one is beautifully decorated and fitted with all the mod cons you could imagine as well as luxurious amenities and he lives here all alone.”

  “Wadsworth lives here too,” Abby said as she checked the time. Sebastian had sent her a message saying Harriet Winthrop would receive her at precisely eleven in the morning. She would be permitted to take notes but, according to the instructions, she should refrain from recording the interview.

  “There’s no hurry,” Faith said. “You have plenty of time. After your interview, you might consider swinging by your apartment and picking up some more clothes.”

  Abby straightened her jacket. “There’s nothing wrong with what I’m wearing. My jeans are clean and my shirt goes nicely with this tailored jacket. In fact, I think I look rather smart.”

  Faith snorted. “Smart for the pub, but you’re going to the Winthrop estate.”

  Abby gazed out at the lush green trees surrounding the garden. “There must be something in the air and it’s only affecting you.” Dinner had been a formal affair. At least, it had been for Charles and Faith who had both dressed for the occasion while Abby had stayed in her day clothes. After dinner, they’d had drinks in a sumptuous sitting room overlooking the park. An hour later, Charles had excused himself saying he needed to deal with some overseas phone calls.