by B. T. Lord
“Thanks. Appreciate that.”
Alone, she turned back to her paperwork. Suddenly something Rick said clicked in her brain that made her get up and walk out to the reception area where he and Emmy had their desks.
“Say Rick,” she said as she came up to his desk. “You said Gene used his new plane?”
“Yeah.”
“How could he afford a plane? You told me a few months ago, he was hurting for money so much, he moved back in with his mother.”
“He got a wicked deal from some guy. It was one of those situations where he couldn’t turn it down.”
“Do you know who the guy was who sold it to him?”
Rick narrowed his eyes at her. “What’s this about?”
“It could be nothing, but I’d be curious to know who sold him the plane.”
“I’ll call him now and ask.”
“Thanks.”
Cammie made herself a cup of coffee before returning to her desk. She’d barely sat down when Rick popped his head in.
“I can see why you asked,” he said. “According to Gene, a friend of his saw an ad in the local paper and mentioned it to him. Gene called him up and they worked out a deal.” Rick looked at Cammie. “The guy who sold my cousin the plane was Charles Evans.” He shook his head. “Man, you’ve got the instincts of a psychic shark.”
“Not really. It was just a lucky guess. When did he buy the plane?”
“April 14th. He remembered the date because that’s his girlfriend’s birthday and he was planning on taking her up for a ride to celebrate. You think it’s the same Charles Evans you’ve been telling us about?”
“It seems too coincidental for it not to be.”
“But I thought he died in some boat accident around the middle of March out in California.”
“That’s the official story. But it seems he owed $4 million to Boris Sherazanko, Phil Buttarazzi and Morry Temple.”
Rick’s eyes widened. “Holy crap. Was this Evans dude crazy? That’s like owing money to Satan himself. Jeez, if that was me, I would have made myself disappear off the face of the earth before they did it for me.” He suddenly looked up at Cammie. “Whoa – do you think-”
“It’s entirely possible. Did Gene actually meet Evans?”
Rick nodded. “Said he was tall, and wore a baseball cap over his dark hair. Gene said he was very businesslike. Wasn’t much of a chatter. They met, my cuz looked over the plane, took her up for a five minute spin, then paid Evans by cashier’s check. Bada bing, bada boom, they were done in about fifteen minutes. He said the guy seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.”
“You’ve been watching reruns of The Sopranos again, haven’t you?”
“How did you know?”
Cammie rolled her eyes. “This business deal took place in Allagash?” Rick nodded. “Helen was killed on April 13th. And Charles sells his plane on April 14th.”
“So he really did fake his own death. Man, that’s nuts.”
“Not if, like you said, you’ve got Satan’s spawns after your ass.”
Rick looked at her. “You think he killed Helen?”
“If she refused to give him the money he needed, yeah, I can imagine him killing her.”
“So if that’s true, he has to have created another identity for himself to make sure those goons don’t find him. Which means he could be anywhere in the world.”
“I know.” She chewed on her thumbnail for a while, then glanced up at Rick. “About the only thing I can do is call up Mantree and let him know that Evans sold your cousin a plane a day after Helen died and a month after he supposedly drowned. I’ll also tell him about the criminal connection. Then it’s up to him to take it any further.”
“Do you think he will?”
Cammie shrugged. “Geoff is a good investigator. Although it would be easier to keep believing Henry was responsible for killing Helen, I think he’ll follow up on this. At least,” she added, “I hope so.”
After sharing what she’d discovered with Mantree, she was pleased to learn that he would indeed be following up on it. When she phoned Doc to ask if she could come over, he ended up inviting both she and Jace to dinner.
When they arrived at Doc’s cabin, they saw he’d made a roasted leg of lamb with olive oil potatoes and asparagus with a whipped chocolate mousse for desert. Doc asked that she wait until after they’d eaten to discuss whatever it was she wanted to discuss. They enjoyed the lovely meal, and it was over the mousse that Cammie shared with Doc what she’d discovered.
“I never would have imagined Charles capable of killing anyone,” Doc responded. “Then again, I never would have imagined him leading such a debauched life either, or involving himself with such debased human beings as those three men you told me about.” He shook his head to himself. “As distressful a thought as it is, Charles has travelled all over the world. He’d know the perfect place to disappear into.”
“But if he didn’t get the money he needed from Helen, where could he go?” Jace asked.
“There are places, for example, in South America or Asia, where he could live for a pittance.”
Cammie looked at Doc. “You knew Charles. How long do you think he could last living so cheaply?”
“If the alternative is being tortured and killed by a couple of angry gangsters, I’m sure he could force himself to get accustomed to anything.”
“Do you think Lily knows where he is?” Jace asked.
“It’s hard to say. What I can say, however, is that it is much easier for the world to believe she is a widow than to discover the unsavory truth about her husband’s secret life.” Doc took a sip of his coffee before turning his owlish eyes to Cammie. “After the last time you spoke to me, I thought long and hard about this entire situation. I ended up placing a call to Vance and told him of my suspicions that he could have a spy in his office. He took it very seriously and began a clandestine investigation. Turns out you were right, Cammie.”
“I was?”
He nodded. “They’d hired a paralegal last year who’d once worked in Charles’ office. Now that wouldn’t have caused suspicions, but it turns out, she had a short affair with him. When she saw Helen in February, she immediately recognized her from the family pictures Charles had in his office. She claims she didn’t know about Charles’ peccadillos, though she was aware that he seemed to be overly obsessed with money. She knew he would want to know that Helen was meeting with her estate attorney. Charles asked her to find out everything she could. Still besotted with him, she stayed late and somehow managed to find the password to those documents. As you can imagine, she is no longer employed with Pinckney and Adams.”
“Great!” Cammie exclaimed. “So Charles at least did know beforehand about the change to the will. And I’ll stake my reputation on the fact that’s why they both went up to Allagash in March.”
“This is all well and good, but once again, you have no proof that Charles killed Helen,” Jace pointed out.
“I know,” Cammie admitted. “All we can do is wait to see if Mantree comes up with anything.”
“Perhaps not. Perhaps there is another way,” Doc replied enigmatically.
“Short of confronting Lily, there is no other way.” Cammie saw the look on his face and she caught her breath. “Holy shit! You really are thinking of confronting Lily! You can’t be serious.” She saw the malicious pleasure in his eyes and once again she felt a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. “Doc, that may not be the best idea.”
“Why ever not? I thought you were worried a man may be wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.”
“I understand that. But if she is somehow involved in her mother’s death, you may be putting yourself in harm’s way.”
“Which is why you will be there when I confront her. Don’t worry,” he quickly added when he saw her face. “We’re not travelling back to Boston. I shall have her come here.”
“I can’t imagine her making the trek to our little backwater.�
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“Oh she will when money is concerned.”
“Doc, I’m not sure about this.”
“You worry too much. Unless you have a better plan, I don’t think we have much of a choice. If Henry Harding didn’t kill Helen, then it was either Lily or Charles. Or both. There is no other explanation.”
On the way home after leaving Doc’s, Jace turned to Cammie. “You had this weird look on your face all during dessert. Like you’d sucked on a lemon.”
“What do you think about Doc’s idea of getting Lily up here?”
“About the same as I’d feel about someone who enjoys pulling the wings off of flies.”
“Exactly. I thought his episode with Westerfield made him realize the type of ugly person he was capable of becoming. He even feared he was becoming the monster his father was. Now he’s becoming that person again in his zeal to get back at Lily for whatever she did to him growing up. Jeez, when is it ever going to end?”
Jace reached out and placed his hand over hers. “Don’t give up so easily on Doc. He may yet surprise you.”
“God, I hope so. I really hate the idea of him becoming the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
After spending the days grappling with mud season and all the vehicle mishaps that caused, she and Jace returned to their cabin exhausted and, many times, covered in mud. On those nights when she wasn’t wrung out, she took advantage of the warmer evenings – and before mosquito and the hated black fly season started -- to sit out on the porch and watch the ice finally melting off the surface of Mkazawi Pond. Jace sat outside with her and they quietly discussed the upcoming changes they would be making to the cabin. Cammie was happy that she could, at long last, get her own bathroom from paradise and bed from heaven and she spent hours looking at the catalogs the architect provided to pick just the right shower and fixtures. Through it all, she would sometimes be surprised to feel a flutter of nervousness in the pit of her stomach about what she was doing, though the changes were long overdue. This had been her father’s cabin and although they hadn’t been close when he was alive, living in his home had made her feel a bit closer to him now that he was gone. It had a character all its own and she was afraid she’d lose touch with that. Although she never came right out and said it, Jace understood her trepidation and patiently served as a sounding board as she dithered and went back and forth over the blue prints, afraid that maybe she was changing it too much.
Finally, he suggested she be honest with the architect and share her worries with him. It was likely she wasn’t the first client who had such fears and he would know exactly how to incorporate the old with the new. She liked that idea and they set up an appointment to see him the following week.
Unfortunately, Cammie never made it to the appointment.
Doc called and told her Lily would be coming up the next day. She was to run interference between the two cousins and report anything she found to Mantree. She wondered if she should have him present, but decided against it since she wasn’t even sure Lily would speak with her there, much less in front of another police officer. Besides, there was every possibility Lily would have nothing to say. They were only going on conjecture that she knew anything about her husband’s disappearance, or even of his ‘other’ life.
Doc had asked Lily to call him when she’d gotten off the Maine Turnpike so he could estimate her time of arrival. He let Cammie know and she drove up to his cabin a half hour before Lily was to arrive.
“You’re out of uniform,” Doc noticed when he opened the door to her knock.
“I thought it would intimidate Lily if she saw me wearing it.”
“Nothing intimidates Lily except lack of funds.”
“In any case, I didn’t want to take a chance. As it is, she’s probably going to be angry that I’m even here.”
“Haven’t you realized that Lily is always in a perpetual state of anger? It’s just who she is.” He paused, then added, “Do you have your gun?”
Cammie’s eyes widened. “You think I’m going to need it?”
“No. But then again, we’re talking about a possible murderer here. It’s always better to be prepared.”
She was taken aback by his casual attitude about the situation. She expected him to at least be a little nervous over the prospect of meeting with his mother’s possible killer. Nevertheless, she nodded. “I have my gun.”
“Good.”
“Now Doc, I don’t want you antagonizing Lily. Just have a decent conversation with her. I’ll be able to tell through body language if she’s lying or not. If I think she is, I’ll turn this over to Mantree. Even though we’re meeting on my turf, this is still his investigation.”
He waved his hand at her. “Don’t worry. I know just how to handle her.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she whispered under her breath.
The coffee had just finished perking when they heard the sounds of a vehicle pulling up Doc’s gravel driveway. He poured two cups, then pointed at Cammie. “Let me do the talking. You’re just here to observe.”
“I’m here to pull her off you when you go too far,” she reminded him.
“That too.”
She watched as he walked towards the front door, noting the spring in his step. Her heart sank. This meeting did not bode well for being drama free. Then again, this was Doc. He didn’t know how to do anything drama free.
She heard them greet each other at the door. Lily actually sounded upbeat as she said her hellos to Doc. Dressed in chocolate brown slacks, white blouse and a flowing red and orange scarf that trailed in the air behind her, Lily made her grand entrance into the large open space that was divided between the living room and kitchen. She was animated and at ease. Until she looked into the kitchen. And saw Cammie. Her expression immediately turned stony.
“Jesus, are you two joined at the hip?” she grumbled.
“I asked her to be here,” Doc replied blithely.
“We’re going to talk family business, Samuel. Unless you’ve adopted her, there’s no reason for her to be here.”
Doc fixed her with a stern look. “She remains, Lily.”
“I prefer to keep our conversation private.”
“She remains, Lily,” he repeated, this time with more force in his voice.
The woman dramatically rolled her eyes. “I’d like to freshen up,” she replied sharply.
Doc pointed out where the bathroom was. She turned and flounced towards it, making sure to slam the door behind her.
“Are you sure you want me here?” Cammie asked, feeling very uncomfortable.
“Yes, I do.”
She inwardly sighed. A few moments later, Lily emerged and headed towards the kitchen where she placed her large Coach bag over the back of one of the dining room chairs.
“You’ve managed to bring a bit of civilization to this wilderness,” she replied as she looked about her. “Was Lafferty your architect?”
“As a matter of fact, he was.”
She nodded. “I thought I recognized some of his touches.”
“I poured you a cup of coffee,” Doc said as he handed her the mug. She took a sip.
“If you weren’t so far off the beaten track, I could actually entertain having a place up here.”
“You’d be bored within twenty minutes,” he replied.
“You’re probably right.”
They chitchatted for a few minutes as each enjoyed their cup of Doc’s special Ethiopian blend. Cammie began to squirm, impatient to get whatever Doc had in mind over with while, at the same time, dreading how he was going to approach whatever it was he had up his sleeve. Despite his upbringing, he wasn’t exactly known for his tact. She inwardly sighed again and tried her best not to scream at him to get on with it.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was actually only ten minutes, Doc put the two coffee mugs in the sink. “Why don’t we retire to the living room? It’s much more comfortable there.”
They walked towards the sofa
with Cammie taking up the rear. Not sure where to place herself, she sat at the furthest end of the sofa while Lily sat nearer to the beautiful river stone fireplace. Doc sat in his usual place, opposite the couch in his large, comfy armchair.
“Thank you for coming all this way. I know it was a long trip for you,” he began.
“Thankfully traffic was light.”
“I wish to reiterate again that I had nothing to do with Helen’s decision to change her will, despite what you believe. I didn’t know she’d done anything until Vance informed me.”
Lily said nothing but Cammie could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t believe one word of what Doc was saying. “As it is, I’m a little embarrassed that she left so much to me.”
“That can be easily remedied,” Lily smiled.
Cammie inwardly shuddered. God, that smile was cold.
“Before we get into all of that, I’d like to ask you a few questions though. Just to clarify some things that I’m having trouble understanding.”
“What is there not to understand? You’re my mother’s illegitimate son. She preferred you to me, her legitimate daughter and heir.”
“Why do you think she preferred me to you?”
“Because you didn’t really know her. You were spared growing up with who she really was.”
“And who was that?”
She let out a frustrated breath. “Is this really necessary, Samuel?”
“Indulge me. Remember, I only knew her as my aunt until a few years ago.”
Lily crossed her ankles, her perfectly manicured nails placed just so on her knees, her posture straight. Cammie absently wondered if she’d learned to sit like that in whatever finishing school she’d been sent to. Such a difference between them – Lily spending her school years learning how to sit straight while Cammie scrummed around on the ice playing hockey. Yet despite all her wealth and sophistication, Cammie knew she’d gotten the better end of the deal. At least she knew how to be happy. She supposed that was something not taught in prep school.
“I’m sure she was kind and sweet to you. She had enough charm to wrap anyone she wanted around her little finger. And she did. Countless times. However, you never saw how coldly and cruelly she treated Daddy. Or how coldly and cruelly she treated me.”