A Perfect Case of Murder

by B. T. Lord

  “Do you believe her?”

  “After what I saw here tonight, I believe Lily to be capable of anything.”

  A few moments later they were joined by Carole. Together, the three of them left the funeral home.

  The night air was refreshing. Both Doc and Cammie took in deep breaths, grateful to be away from the cloying smell of flowers and the almost claustrophobic crowd of people.

  “I thought it would be awkward for your family to see me,” she explained as they crossed the street towards the cafe. “Though, it’s been such a long time, they may not even have remembered me. But I didn’t want to take that chance.”

  They got a table away from the windows, and ordered their coffee. “I’m so sorry for the loss of your aunt. And I apologize for springing this on you at the wake. But I’m leaving for Seattle in the morning and I didn’t think I’d have another chance to speak with you. I know what I said sounds crazy and I appreciate you at least agreeing to hear me out.”

  Doc nodded. “I remember Tom. He was a good man.”

  She nodded. “Yes he was.”

  The coffee was served and they waited for the waitress to leave.

  “What makes you think Lily had anything to do with Tom’s disappearance?” Cammie asked. “Had they kept in contact after their divorce?”

  “Why don’t I begin at the beginning?” Carole suggested. “That might help explain why I feel the way I do.” Doc and Cammie nodded and sat back in their chairs while Carole spoke.

  “Tom was my older brother. From childhood we were always very close. Mother used to say we were constantly in each other’s pockets. We had no secrets between us. When Tom first began dating Lily, we were all so happy about it. She was beautiful and kind and sweet. Or so we thought. They were barely back from their honeymoon when the real Lily began to emerge. She was always putting Tom down, treating him more like a servant than a husband. He tried so hard to make her happy, but it was never enough for her. We were all appalled by her behavior, but what could we do? I think even Helen was dismayed. She liked Tom very much. But at the end of the day, it was up to Tom to say something.”

  “Did he?” Doc asked.

  Carole gave a sad shake of her head. “Poor Tom. As much as it pains me to admit this, I think Tom was attracted to Lily’s strong, domineering character. He was so in love with her that no matter what she said or did, he always found an excuse to justify her appalling behavior.”

  “An unhappy marriage doesn’t always translate into one spouse murdering another,” Cammie pointed out.

  “Believe me, I know. I’m on husband number two myself.”

  “So are you saying that Tom didn’t disappear in the Amazon?” Doc asked.

  She sighed. “Tom started his charity just before he married Lily. He’d taken a trip down to Peru right after he graduated college and was struck by the poverty and the inability for many of the children to get a decent education. He wanted so much to help. He and Helen shared the same philosophy regarding giving children the head start they needed, so she gave him the seed money. As it turned out, the charity became a bit of a money pit. But as long as he was married to Lily, he had access to her funds. Then when the marriage began to fall apart, she refused to give him a cent. She’d always resented him finding fulfillment with what she called ‘those dirty brown people’.”

  “That sounds like Lily,” Doc replied drily.

  “Tom managed to keep things going on a shoestring budget after he and Lily divorced. But inevitably, there came the day when he desperately needed money to keep it going. He’d already gotten all he was getting to get from our father. And he was too proud to keep going to Helen. He and I spoke about it many times. I’m in marketing and I tried my best to help out, but what he really needed was an injection of cash. He was on the verge of losing everything he’d built up. Then the floods and mudslides occurred in Peru and he disappeared.”

  Cammie shook her head in confusion. “So how does Lily fit into the picture?”

  “The last time we spoke was about two weeks before his disappearance. He told me things were going to be fine. When I asked him what he meant, he started to say the name Lily, but abruptly stopped as if he realized he wasn’t supposed to say anything about it. I pressed him, but he laughed and changed the subject. Two weeks later, he fell off the face of the earth.”

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Simmons, but that’s not much to go on,” Cammie admitted.

  “Please call me Carole. I wouldn’t have thought so either. However, just before I came here to Boston, my curiosity got the best of me over Tom’s charity. Without him there, and knowing how it was just about to go under, I wanted to see if it was even still in existence. I decided to take a trip down there. I was shocked by what I found.”

  Both Cammie and Doc unconsciously leaned forward as she continued with her story. “Instead of the offices closing or being close to folding up, they were actually building a new facility and had hired many more teachers. In other words, they had a huge infusion of cash. Now I’d visited there last fall and they were barely making ends meet.”

  “Perhaps Tom did get that infusion of cash he needed before he disappeared,” Doc gently reminded her.

  “The manager in charge was very evasive when I asked him where the money was coming from. He simply said it was coming from a source that wished to remain anonymous.”

  “Again, I don’t see how Lily is connected to this,” Cammie said.

  “My fear is that Tom decided to blackmail her and paid the price for doing so.” She took a sip of her coffee, then continued. “You see, during one of my last trips to Peru, Tom became drunk. He told me about various incidents that had occurred when he was married to Lily. As I’m sure you’re aware, Dr. Westerfield, your cousin has issues with anger. She flies into uncontrollable rages if she doesn’t get her way. It seems that when she and Tom were married, she actually struck one of the housemaids on the head with a hair brush, cutting the poor woman in the forehead. Of course the maid threatened to sue. Tom told me Lily went to her mother who paid the maid off. It was all brushed under the rug and nothing more was said about it. According to him, it wasn’t the first time Mrs. Carsgrove used her wealth to get Lily out of trouble, nor was that the only time Lily mistreated her help. Another woman actually ended up in the hospital when Lily pushed her down a flight of stairs for not responding quickly enough to her summons. Once again Helen stepped in, paying all the medical bills, as well as putting the woman’s two children through college.”

  “As I’m sure you’re also aware, Lily is obsessed about her position in society. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the real reason she divorced Tom. He wasn’t glamorous enough or rich enough to suit her. Instead, the ink was barely dry on her divorce papers when she latched onto Charles Evans, relishing her role as the wife of a highly successful attorney, hobnobbing with the rich and famous all over the world. By this time, the charity was in dire straits and Tom had begun to drink more than he should. He said something to me I’ll never forget. He said, ‘I can use that information to get the money I need.’ Of course I was horrified. He saw the look on my face and began to backtrack, saying he’d never do anything like that. He was still in love with her and it had just been a desperate thought. But ever since he disappeared, that’s all I can think about.” She leaned forward in her chair. “What if Tom really did try to blackmail Lily? If the news got out of how abhorrent Lily was to her staff, it would have ruined her. Is it too farfetched to conclude that Lily may have used her money – or even her mother’s money – to hire someone to make sure Tom never came back from that trip into the Amazon?” She sat back in her chair. “The timing of it all is awfully suspicious, don’t you think?”

  “It could be,” Doc replied non-committedly.

  “Maybe I’m being too conspiratorial for my own good. But when Bitsy told me you were an investigator and with Samuel’s knowledge of the family…”

  Cammie said nothing. She looked at Doc to see wh
at he had to say. He absently ran his finger up and down the side of the coffee mug, then looked up to meet Carole’s eyes. “I appreciate your fears over what happened to Tom. But have you stopped to consider that the anonymous donor could very well have been Helen? She’d already made plans to remember Tom’s charity in her will, actually increasing her bequest this past February. In a moment of desperation and under the influence of alcohol, I have no doubt Tom may have considered blackmail. But to consider it and to actually do it are two different things.”

  “So you think I am crazy after all?” Carole asked, deflated.

  “I’m not saying that at all. Why don’t I do this? I may be able to find out where the sudden influx of cash came from. If it was indeed Helen, there should be a record of it.”

  “And if it was Helen?”

  Doc hesitated. It was Cammie who spoke up. “It still doesn’t prove Lily had anything to do with Tom’s disappearance. But at least you’ll know where the cash came from.”

  Carole didn’t look pleased, but there was nothing left for her to do. She opened her handbag and withdrew two business cards that she handed to Cammie and Doc. “Please call me any time, day or night, if you find out anything.” She took out some cash and laid it on the table, then stood up. “I have an early morning flight, so I’ll take my leave. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. And again, please accept my condolences over the loss of your aunt.”

  “What do you think?” Cammie asked after Carole had left.

  “I don’t dispute the fact that Lily has a temper. I remember when we were children, Freddy gave her a hamster as a pet. One day, the hamster nipped her. She became so angry she began to squeeze the poor little thing to death. Thank God I was there to rescue it. I took him away from her and kept him until he died of old age.” He smiled to himself. “His name was Hamlet.”

  “If Tom threatened to go public with that story, do you think Lily would have done something to shut him up?”

  “She certainly wouldn’t have taken the possibility of having her reputation damaged sitting down. But to say she hired someone to kill Tom…? Or, considering how much he loved her, to think he’d actually carry through on his threat of blackmail?” They stood up and left the café.

  Standing outside on the sidewalk, Doc looked up at the night sky. “At least one good thing came out of speaking with Carole. I now understand why Helen changed Lily’s inheritance. Vance was right in believing that Helen felt she’d paid Lily more than enough during her lifetime to leave her a sizeable amount in her will.” He shook his head to himself. “I wonder how many maids poor Helen had to pay off to keep a scandal from erupting.”

  “There’s something else to consider,” Cammie replied carefully as they crossed the street. Doc looked expectantly at her. “I know how hard this is for you, but you’ve told me that Helen was once as obsessed with perfection as Lily is now. In light of that, is it possible Helen paid someone to kill the man who threatened to ruin her daughter’s reputation? And is that why Helen was killed?”

  “Dear God,” Doc whispered. “I’m not sure I want to discover that my mother is a murderer.”

  “Maybe this was one situation where Lily didn’t run to her mother. Especially since Helen liked Tom and was possibly funding his charity.” She saw the look on his face. “As executor of her will, you have access to all of Helen’s financial papers, correct?” Doc nodded. “Then we’ll do what you told Carole we’d do. We’ll go through Helen’s paperwork and see if she paid out a large amount of cash around the time Tom disappeared. If she didn’t, then you know she had nothing to do with it.”

  A small smile tugged at Doc’s lips. “You’re obsessed with finding out the truth about all of this, aren’t you?”

  She matched his smile. “We’re not that different, you and I. You won’t be able to ignore this forever. You want to find out one way or the other, just as I do.”

  He sighed. “You’re right. I’ll always have that doubt in the back of my mind.”

  They arrived at the Navigator where Doc remotely opened the doors. Just before she climbed inside, Cammie looked across the roof at him. “Are you ready to accept the possibility that Helen may have been involved in Tom’s disappearance?”

  “I won’t like it. But I think we owe it to Carole and her family to find out whatever we can. I can’t imagine living with such a thing hanging over their heads. I’ll call Helen’s accountant on the way back to Horatio’s. Maybe there are some files we can take with us when we return to Twin Ponds.” He looked around him at the city lights. “I suddenly feel as though I’ll suffocate if I spend one more minute longer than I have to in Boston. We’ll pack tonight and take off after the funeral tomorrow.”

  “What about the mercy meal?”

  Doc rolled his eyes. “I think I’ve put up with enough without having to face the ghastly prospect of witnessing another grand performance by Lily Evans.”

  “I’ll send you what I have via email,” the accountant informed Doc when he phoned. “However, Helen kept most of her records herself up in her home in Maine. She was a very savvy businesswoman and liked to keep track of her own accounts.”

  After hanging up with the accountant, Doc next left a message for Carole. He wasn’t promising anything, but he informed her that Cammie and he would see what they could find out.

  The memorial service and the burial at Mt. Auburn Cemetery went off without a hitch. Lily kept a stoic look on her face, dressed all in black with black lace covering her face. She did the obligatory throwing of a flower over Helen’s casket, then, much like the day before, turned on her heel and left without saying anything to anyone. Doc too remained stoic, but unlike his half- sister, Cammie saw the pain and grief in his eyes. After everyone had gone, he remained alone, standing over the open grave. He had his back to Cammie, but she saw his shoulders shaking and she knew he was crying. She withdrew a distance away to give him the privacy he needed.

  After a few minutes, he blew a kiss at the casket and walked wordlessly towards the Navigator. Knowing how upset he was, Cammie got into the driver’s seat. She started the engine and they started the long trek back to Twin Ponds. It wasn’t until they crossed the border into New Hampshire that Doc turned to her.

  “I suppose this means we’ll need to return to Helen’s cabin to find those accounts.”

  “Yes.”

  He looked out the window again. “If Carole has waited this long, she can wait a bit longer. I need a bit of time to decompress.”

  “That’s fine. I’m sure there are things waiting for me on my desk back at HQ.”

  “As well as your hunky hockey player waiting for you at home.”

  Cammie smiled. “That too.”

  They were just on the outskirts of Portland when Cammie’s cell rang. She listened quietly, her brow wrinkled with concern. When she hung up, she looked deep in thought.

  “Is everything alright?” Doc asked, wondering if she’d gotten some bad news from Twin Ponds.

  “That was Geoff Mantree. He called to inform me they’ve arrested Henry Harding for the murder of Helen Carsgrove. Using the list you provided of the items stolen from her cabin, they did a search of his farm and found the artwork stuffed in the loft of his barn.”

  Doc eyed her steadily. “You don’t look happy about it.”

  Cammie shrugged. “As I said earlier, I don’t know those people the way Geoff does. He obviously thought Henry was capable of doing it. Now he has proof that Henry was at least in Helen’s house in order to steal those items.” She sighed. “So it’s over, Doc. The case is closed.”

  “There’s still the matter of finding out what happened to Tom. But there’s no hurry on that.”

  Cammie turned her attention back to the road, trying her best not to let her thoughts show on her face. Despite the arrest, she had a feeling deep down inside that Henry wasn’t the murderer.

  The problem was, if it wasn’t Henry, who was the killer?

  Taking turns, they
drove through the night, arriving back at Twin Ponds in the wee hours of the morning. After transferring her bag to the Explorer, Cammie watched as Doc wearily climbed the porch steps of his cabin.

  “Are you going to be okay?” she impulsively called out.

  He didn’t answer. He just waved his hand at her. She watched him enter the house, turn on the lights and close the door behind himself.

  She was exhausted. They’d been driving for hours. But she couldn’t quite leave yet. She stood in the cold night air and watched as the lights were extinguished in Doc’s house. She saw him in her mind’s eye, climbing the stairs to his room, the weight of all they’d gone through falling heavily on his shoulders now that he was alone.

  On the dark, quiet ride to her own cabin, she tried to keep her mind occupied with thoughts of work and a myriad of other unimportant things to keep her company on the half hour drive. However, Doc kept intruding. She thought of his loneliness, his guilt over Eliot, his grief over losing his mother. Boston had brought them closer together. But it had given her a peek into his world that she was sure he would have preferred to keep hidden from everyone, including her. A light had been shone on the darker parts of his soul. Would that now put up a barrier between them?

  She was too tired to figure it all out at that moment. She just wanted to sink down into her own bed and forget about everything.

  Pulling down her driveway, she saw the porch light was on, though the cabin was dark. It was late and she hadn’t expected Jace to stay up waiting for her. He probably had a full schedule at the garage the next day and he needed to sleep. But when she walked through the door, she saw him get up from her father’s old beat up recliner near the wood stove. They said nothing as he gathered her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. His touch was home to her. And for the first time since stepping foot in Boston, she felt she was back where she belonged.

  Doc stood in the darkened window of his bedroom and watched the Explorer’s back lights disappear down the driveway until they blinked out.