When I opened the door, Nate said, “Well, that was audacious.”
“You listened?” I handed him a cookie.
“Of course I did. You ran out of here without telling me what you were up to.”
“We’re hard-pressed.”
“I know. And, hey…” He shook his head. “It paid off. Well done, Slugger.”
“I’m not proud of myself. Bothering a widow on the very day her husband’s body is discovered. Mamma would skin me alive.”
“Mrs. Middleton seems to be holding up, from what I could tell. I think she’ll be grateful in the long run,” Nate said. “During the…lull…while everyone was socializing, I called in a favor and verified Nathaniel Gibbes and Wendi Hill flew to Vienna on Saturday the thirteenth. After a phone canvas of the nicer hotels, I found them at the Grand Hotel Europa in Innsbruck. The concierge has helped them with entertainment virtually every day, and they’ve ordered a great deal of room service. I think we can safely rule them out.”
“Thank heavens we can rule someone out.” I sighed, bit Santa’s head off. “What’s going on across the street?”
“Things have mostly quieted down. All the clients have gone home except Arthur Russell. Huger just left with the same woman who arrived with him. I couldn’t get a shot of her face, even her hair color, for the scarf and sunglasses. Seth is watching TV.”
“Prioleau’s already gone?”
“Yeah. Just a few minutes ago.”
“He sure didn’t stay long,” I said. “We have all their names, and not one of them is John. Miss Dean called John for help. Who the devil is John? I need to get to work on pulling background on all these people.”
I settled in with my laptop. Then my phone vibrated. Mamma. And the call I’d sent to voicemail earlier was from her. “Hey, Mamma.” I reached for my happy voice.
“E-liz-a-beth.” She must’ve been tired. She didn’t trot out the rest of my names.
“Mamma, what’s wrong?”
“Where are you? Merry says she’s staying with Rhett.”
“I’m in Charleston. Nate and I have a case. We’re staying over here tonight.”
“You do recall you’re getting married on Saturday?”
“I don’t have anywhere else to wear that gorgeous dress.”
“Why on God’s green earth can’t you take the week off like normal people?”
“We’d planned to. But something came up.”
“You need to learn to say ‘no’ to people. You have a life aside from your job.”
“I know, Mamma.”
“Don’t patronize me, Elizabeth. I called to see when Nate’s parents are arriving. You never told me. I’ve asked a dozen times.”
“Hold on a sec.” I held my phone against my leg. “When are your parents getting here?”
Nate’s eyes widened. He swallowed, rolled his lips in. “Tomorrow afternoon.”
“Did they decide where they want to stay?” I asked. We’d invited them to stay with us. Mamma had likewise extended an invitation. Between the two houses, we had eight guest bedrooms.
“In a hotel. In Charleston.”
“Why? They won’t even be able to get back here after the reception’s over. The ferry will’ve stopped running.”
“My guess is they’re not planning to stay for the bouquet toss.”
That hurt my heart. Not because I cared one whit about those cold fish jerks, but for Nate. “Oh no. Sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
His face closed. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Whatever they do or don’t do is not going to have one iota of impact on our wedding and our party.”
I’d kept Mamma waiting too long. I raised the phone. “They’re staying in Charleston.”
“What? Why on this earth would they do that?”
“Well, Mamma, I suppose they have mixed emotions about me marrying their other son.” Nate’s older brother, Scott the Scoundrel, was my ex-husband, whereabouts unknown, but likely in a country with no extradition. That was a whole nother story.
Mamma huffed. “Poor Nate. Is he all right?”
“I think so.”
“Bless his heart. I’m still mad as fire at those people over the rehearsal dinner. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Nate’s parents maintained they couldn’t manage to coordinate a rehearsal dinner on Stella Maris from Florida, which everyone knew was ridiculous. Nate had quietly taken care of it himself. “I know, Mamma. They’ve made their own hotel arrangements, anyway, so we don’t need to worry about where they’re sleeping.”
“I assure you I won’t waste another millisecond of my time worrying about them. Have you spoken to Nicolette?”
“Yes. I told her again. Eight to a table. If some of them don’t have centerpieces, I seriously doubt the world will stop turning.”
“If she calls you again, tell her to call me if she needs anything else between now and Saturday.”
“Thank you, Mamma. I will.”
“We’ll see y’all Thursday evening.”
“Thursday?” Hell’s bells. What else had I forgotten?
“Thursday night. We’re having family Christmas because you and Nate will be in St. John over Christmas, remember? Which I still object to, by the way. It’s not like you and Nate haven’t been honeymooning for years now. You could’ve waited until the day after Christmas to leave. It might not be too late to change your tickets.”
I was not going down that road with her.
“Oh, right. For a moment it slipped my mind. We’ll see you Thursday at six.”
“Fine. Give Nate my love.”
“Will do. Bye now.”
“Bye-bye.”
I heaved a deep sigh. “I still have to find Daddy’s Christmas present. He’s always the hardest to buy for. At least this year he didn’t ask for something ridiculous.” For a number of years, he’d sent us all on a scavenger hunt by asking for things he thought would be hard to find. A digeridoo. A toucan bird—I’d gotten a ceramic one. A hippopotamus—Merry found one made of concrete for the yard. The list went on.
“I’d get him a gift card,” said Nate.
“I can’t get Daddy a gift card. It has to be something personal.”
“Just don’t get him another gun.”
I gave Nate my best Oh please look. Then I set to working on profiles and organizing the information we’d gathered so far. I liked to know everything I could about everyone involved. You never knew what might be important. After digging a while, among other things, I established that none of the parties involved had criminal or civil action records. All of the bordello patrons came from old Charleston money.
The number of people involved made it difficult to see all the pieces to my puzzle. I needed a whiteboard and photos. I’d taken plenty of snapshots, but had no quick way to print them. I improvised with a quilt on the floor and some index cards from my tote. After laying it all out, I stood back to view my handiwork.
The bordello clients were down the left side of the quilt, with their “nieces” across from them on the far right. At the bottom, I added the former residents, boyfriends, and other assorted characters:
William Calhoun Amber McDonald
Brown hair, nice smile Black hair
39 years old 23 years old
Beauty Queen wife College of Charleston
Highly respected neurosurgeon Financial Management
Friend of Thurston Middleton
Negative patient ratings/bedside manner
Nathaniel Gibbes Wendi Hill
Sandy hair Blond
35 years old 25 years old
Out of the Country Stripper pole
Out of the Country
James Huger Dana Clark
Salt-and-
pepper hair, handsome Brunette
42 years old 27 years old
CEO, Huger International Nursing student, MUSC
Friend and campaign contributor Lots of passport stamps
Two rooms, mystery woman Fifty Shades
Devoted husband, father Not as discreet as others
Philanthropist
Henry Prioleau Heather Wilder
Brown hair, round glasses Blond, blue-green eyes
27 years old 27 years old
VP, family restaurant business Grad Student
Rut’s New South Cuisine Environmental studies
Hiding something Interesting lingerie
Negative comments/TripAdvisor/ Spunky
Short fuse
Arthur Russell Lori Stowe
Kevin Spacey with a mustache Redhead, tall
40 years old 22 years old
Owns antique store on King Street Trident Tech
Serial adulterer Information Systems
Knew Thurston Middleton Costumes
Seth Quinlan
Longish brown hair
Burly
46 years old
Blackmailer
Murderer
Loved Roxanne
Protective of Aunt Dean
Robert Pearson
Raylan Beauthorpe
Julia Middleton
William Rutledge Roxanne Trexler
(Deceased) (Deceased)
Next, I made a card for Thurston Middleton and placed it in the middle of the quilt.
Thurston Middleton
Devoted husband, father
Philanthropist
Entering political arena
Once paid for Julia’s room at Miss Dean’s boardinghouse
Would not cave to blackmail
Tried to help Miss Dean, protective
“I need some yarn.”
Nate looked over his shoulder. “Maybe Annelise has some.”
“She wasn’t downstairs the last time I came in. I don’t want to disturb her. I bet she has spaghetti in the kitchen.”
I headed downstairs. The music was off, the house quiet. In Annelise’s well-organized pantry, I quickly scored a box of Mueller thin. On my way back, the four remaining Christmas cookies on the tray in the foyer called to me. It would’ve been a shame to let them dry out overnight. I scooped them up and slipped quietly back upstairs.
“Arthur Russell just left,” said Nate when I’d closed the door. “He does favor Kevin Spacey a bit, in a House of Cards sleazy politician kind of way.”
“Everyone looks sleazy sneaking out of a whorehouse.”
“Fair point.”
“I’m just trying to keep some sort of visual. Without photos to put on my board, the descriptions help.”
“Whatever works.”
I opened the box of spaghetti and took out a few noodles. Using three pieces end-to-end, I made a line connecting Julia Middleton to Thurston Middleton. My instincts said there was no way she killed her husband. But experience had taught me that people can fool you, and family members are very often liable in the deaths of their loved ones.
Next I connected James Huger to Thurston Middleton. They’d been close friends, and Huger was a campaign contributor. He had the strongest connection I knew of aside from Julia. Then I made connecting lines to Thurston’s card from Arthur Russell and William Calhoun, the other two men Julia had mentioned Thurston knew well. Seth had the best motive I knew of. Spaghetti line for him. Raylan Beauthorpe and Robert Pearson both had opportunity.
Nate stared at the screen.
“Are you connecting people who knew him?”
“People who knew him and people who had motive, means, or opportunity.”
“I see,” said Nate. “Well, I suppose that thins the herd by a few.”
“The three men we know were in the house last night are Calhoun, Huger, and Russell. They’re already connected.”
“So are we eliminating Henry Prioleau?” Nate asked. “I’d say he has as much motive as the rest of them.”
“Agreed. And just because we haven’t found a connection yet doesn’t mean there isn’t one. His family’s chain of restaurants is very popular. The one here in Charleston is highly rated. Most of the reviews on TripAdvisor and so forth are very positive. But the few that aren’t make the whole family sound a little nutty. Henry in particular reportedly has a very short fuse. Apparently, he doesn’t handle criticism well. I have a lot of work to do, and precious little time.”
“Me, too.” Colleen faded in. “We need to get the girls out of the house tonight.”
I nodded.
“Nate, I think we need to move the girls to a safe place.”
“Okay, that came out of left field. What makes you think they aren’t safe where they are?”
“It’s a gut feeling.” My gut’s name was Colleen. I stared at my quilt. “It all comes down to motive. Whoever killed Thurston Middleton very likely did it for one of two reasons. Scenario one: to maintain the status quo at the bordello. The underlying motive would be lust, maybe even love, or money, depending on who the killer was—which side of the transaction they were on. If this was the motive, then Julia is also in danger if the killer knew her history with Aunt Dean.”
“Julia, yes. The women in the house across the street, no.”
Colleen said, “I don’t need his help. Or permission, for that matter. I can have that house cleared out in five minutes flat.”
I tamped down my irritation.
“Exactly, Nate, but scenario two is anger and/or revenge. If it was Seth, he was royally pissed off that Thurston wasn’t paying him blackmail money, and was afraid Thurston was going to the police. And he probably thought killing Thurston would solve most of his problems, keep the bordello open. As long as he takes care of Julia quickly.”
“And if it was someone else?”
“Then the killer was angry that Thurston planned to put a stop to all the sex and/or money. The killer was smarter, perhaps knew Thurston better. He maybe knew that killing Thurston wouldn’t keep the bordello open. Things had gone too far. Julia knew that Thurston was investigating Aunt Dean’s boardinghouse, as did anyone else Thurston had confided in—possibly someone connected to his campaign. Killing Thurston served no real purpose except to make the killer feel better. This killer saw the bordello as irretrievably lost already. Leaving Thurston on the floor in the bordello probably gratified the killer’s sick sense of poetic justice.”
Nate looked thoughtful. I continued, “This scenario scares me most because the killer will almost certainly want to cover his tracks, eliminate anyone or anything that could tie him to the bordello as soon as possible.”
“You’re assuming our culprit is one of the men?”
“I’d say that’s far more likely. Could one of the women have struck a six-foot-tall man in the head from behind with enough force to kill him? She would’ve had to’ve held the pineapple over her head with both hands and attacked while he was walking towards the door.”
“It would be easier if we knew their fitness level. Height and upper body strength are huge factors here. The tall redhead maybe could’ve done it if she works out,” Nate said. “Still…I agree. It was more likely one of the men. And we don’t know if the motive was lust, money, revenge, or something else we haven’t uncovered yet.”
“Exactly. I think we should err on the side of keeping everyone who might possibly be in danger safe.”
Colleen said, “And we need to step on it.”
“Hold on a minute,” said Nate. “You’ve just made a compelling case that we have a perfect trap already set. If you honestly believe the killer is coming back to permanently silence his mistress, why don’t we wa
it until he shows up and grab him?”
Colleen started glowing.
“That won’t work.”
“Because we turn off the cameras when they start touching each other,” I said. “We can’t assume every man who shows up is here to kill someone. We can’t possibly know who’s in danger until it’s too late to intervene.”
“All right,” Nate said. “Fine. How are we going to convince the ladies to leave, and what safe place did you have in mind?”
“Hmmm…” I grasped for a glimmer of a notion.
My phone rang. I glanced at the screen. Olivia. I tapped the button to accept the call.
“Hey, Olivia, you okay?”
“Ohmygod. Ohmygod.” It sounded like she was hyperventilating. I pressed the speaker button and laid the phone on the dresser so Nate could hear. “Seth just called Raylan. Raylan called me. Then Seth called me. Ohmygod.”
I said, “Olivia, slow down. What did Seth want with Raylan?”
“Aunt Dean somehow figured out Thurston was killed in the house. She said she heard noises. She said when Thurston’s body turned up at White Point Gardens, she wondered if there was a connection. But Seth didn’t believe her. He knew Raylan was there last night.”
“Oh no.” This was on the fast track to torment. It was one thing for Aunt Dean to know Seth had removed a body from the house. She was no threat to him. Anyone else Seth believed had witnessed that body in the house was in danger.
Olivia babbled on.
“Raylan. Ohmygod. I had no idea he was there. Seth thought Raylan must’ve seen the body and told Aunt Dean. Raylan…he didn’t know that Seth didn’t know I was there. He told Seth neither he nor I had seen any dead bodies.”
“Oh no.” Seth hadn’t known Olivia was there until Raylan told him.
“Oh yes. Well, of course now Seth knows I saw the body and he has it in his head that I told Aunt Dean. Which of course I did no such thing. But he is livid. Liz, he threatened my children if either Raylan or I tell anyone there was a body in the house last night.” She broke down into sobs.
04 Lowcountry Bordello Page 13