“I guess you’re right. The women at my salon were right about Mitch. He did seem shifty and suspicious. This next guy, Douglas Manners, sounds more absent-minded. But some of the women also thought there might be something off about him,” said Trina. “But I think it will be unlikely that he would have been dating Megan Wilway too.”
Lydia agreed with that. They arrived at the home of Douglas Manners and went up to the door. His car must be in the large garage. The house itself was large and had a great view of the ocean. It was an older house but looked well-kept. There was a historical quality to it that eluded Lydia, but she got the sense it had been there much longer than some of the rebuilt beach houses on the street.
When the bearded Douglas opened the door, they repeated their story about hoping to see some of his house because they had heard that Suzanne Peppercorn had done some work there.
“This does seem a little irregular,” Douglas said, stroking his beard. “But I am very proud of this house. You’ve probably heard that around town. An eccentric stranger interested in the history of the town.”
“Yes. That’s what we heard,” Trina said, not mentioning the other comments that she had been told.
“I suppose I can let you inside for a moment,” he agreed.
Douglas opened the door, and they walked into the entryway that split in two directions. Lydia took a step to the right and saw a large fireplace. Above it was a design of an octopus holding several bottles.
“I’m afraid Suzanne didn’t do any work that way,” Douglas said. “Her efforts were concentrated in another section. Actually, it’s mostly focused in one room. I wanted to put my antiques from my collection and what I found in this house when I bought it on display.”
He led them down the left hallway and into a large room. It looked like it belonged in a museum more than a home, but there was still a cozy air about it. Suzanne had designed the room so that all the antiques were viewed in the proper lighting. There was an array of colors, and there were bookcases that formed an unusual shape to hold the many books in the room.
“That’s a lot of books,” Trina remarked.
“And many are even first editions,” Douglas said. “In fact, some only have one copy. I’m an amateur historian, as I’m sure you've heard. I have a great fondness for collecting diaries and learning about secrets from the past. Of course, it’s much harder to get some historical figures’ diaries than others. I only have one president’s in my collection, and sadly, it is a copy.”
“I’d hate for my diary to be on display like that,” Trina said. “But the room itself is designed very nicely. It looks like Suzanne did a good job.”
“I think she did too,” Douglas agreed. “I would definitely recommend her. I was actually thinking of using her services again to update my master bedroom and the guest rooms of the house. Displaying my collection was what I really cared about, but now the upstairs looks dull by comparison to this room. Yes. I think I will contact her. Maybe I’ll call her this afternoon.”
“I’m not sure she’ll be available,” Trina muttered.
“Oh?” asked Douglas. “She’s that busy with other projects? Well, I suppose she’ll soon have yours as well. I don’t see how you could turn her down after seeing a room like this. Mind you, most of the objects in here are mine. She’s not going to automatically give you antiques. But she had these displays made to showcase what I had. And she added that anchor. They seem to be a specialty of hers.”
Lydia almost said that Suzanne had added an anchor to make her porch look more nautical to potential buyers, but remembered her cover story about deciding whether to hire Suzanne or not in time. She merely said that the antique anchor matched the rest of the room.
“I do hope she’ll be able to work for me again,” Douglas said.
“I think we might have taken up enough of your time,” Lydia said. “We must be interrupting your plans for the afternoon.”
“Not at all. I just wanted to do some reading,” Douglas said.
“Well, I’m glad we caught you at home,” said Lydia. “Were you here all morning? We considered coming earlier, but we didn’t want to intrude too early.”
“You came at the perfect time because I was out earlier. I wanted to read by the water, and I know this lovely place where no one ever bothers you. But now I’ve had enough sun and want to read at home.”
“I don’t suppose you’d want to share were that secret beach spot is?” asked Lydia. “I’d love to find a place away from the tourists.”
“It’s my secret,” Douglas said. “Why this morning there wasn’t anyone there at all. I had the whole area to myself.”
“Well, thank you again,” Lydia said.
Douglas showed them out, and Lydia considered him as a suspect. He didn’t have an alibi that could be backed up if no one saw him reading at the beach. He certainly didn’t show any inkling that Suzanne was missing and wouldn’t be available for a call, but was this all an act? She just couldn’t be sure. She would have to consider him a suspect too.
11
The Sad Detective
Even though Lydia still had another of Suzanne’s clients that she wanted to question and she didn’t want to get in the way of what the police were up to, Lydia thought that she should check on her brother. She knew that to have him sitting at the police station just waiting to hear something must feel like torture.
She stopped by the taffy shop and learned that some of the out of town clients had already been accounted for by her intrepid employees. She grabbed a box of sour apple taffy and brought it with her to the police station. She thought it was very possible that Leo had not eaten anything that day. She could probably convince him to have a piece of candy.
Trina was with her as they walked up to Leo’s desk. Leo was staring morosely at the coffee mug that Suzanne had given him.
“Any news?” Leo asked when he saw them.
“I was going to ask you the same question,” Lydia said as she handed him the box of taffy.
“There haven’t been any worthwhile developments,” Leo said as he played with the candy box sadly. “I broke the news to Mrs. Thomas about her husband. She was teaching summer school at the time. It was obviously heartbreaking for her to learn the news.”
“I can only imagine,” Lydia said. “I think it was good of you to be the one to tell her.”
“She was also upset to hear about Suzanne. Of course, her main thoughts were with her lost husband, but she was distressed to hear that Suzanne was missing too. Teddy and Suzanne had worked on a few projects together, and Mrs. Thomas liked her.”
“She didn’t know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Teddy, did she?” Lydia asked.
“My main purpose was to inform her about the death, but I did tell her that if she thought of anything that might help explain what happened this morning – any ideas she might have – we would welcome hearing them.”
“And what did she say to that?” asked Trina.
“She couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Teddy or Suzanne. She thought that their work was well received both when they worked together and apart. She didn’t know of any enemies they had and the name Wilway didn’t mean anything to her. She didn’t think that her husband had worked with that family before,” Leo said. “She told me that she would try to come up with a list of projects that Teddy worked on recently. When she gets that to me, I can see if there is something there that could have a bearing on what happened.”
“That’s a good idea,” Lydia said.
Leo opened the taffy box roughly and then grabbed a piece. Lydia was glad that he was eating something, even if the candy didn’t bring him the joy that it usually did.
“We had this taffy last night. The last time I had it was with Suzanne.”
“And we can have it with her again,” Lydia promised.
“I wish I could do more,” Leo said. “I know there’s a chance that my emotions could compromise the investigation, and I c
ould never forgive myself if I made a mistake that ended up stopping us from solving this in time. But I might still never forgive myself if anything happens to Suzanne. I want to take action. I want to break down doors. But I’m stuck at this desk.”
“You’re still working hard on the case. You got some needed information from Mrs. Thomas and will get more,” said Lydia. “And others are working hard too.”
“It doesn’t feel like I’m making any progress and I’m not sure that anyone else is either,” Leo said, continuing to sound morose. “Megan Wilway’s family is also upset. They sent me the information about the inheritance. It seems that most of the family didn’t want to have anything to do with Suds’s Wilway’s ill-gotten gains. He tried to give money to the family before, and they refused. His daughter Erin ignored him. The house finally fell to Megan, and she accepted it. She must have decided that she didn’t think speakeasy money was that awful. But I don’t see how any of this will help Suzanne.”
“I’m getting depressed now too,” Trina said. “Can I have a piece of taffy?”
Leo offered her the box, and she took a piece. They both started chomping on the candy, trying to chew away their fears.
“We’re working on this too,” Lydia told her brother. “And I’m not giving up.”
Leo finished the taffy and sighed. “I wish that she had called me. I know that you told us everything about it, but I still feel like I could have been more helpful if she was able to reach me. And I would have wanted to hear her voice again. I keep having these terrible thoughts running through my head.”
“Me too,” Trina said, grabbing another taffy.
“What if you were the last person to talk to her besides the killer?” Leo said.
Lydia bit her lip. She had come here wanting to keep her brother’s spirits up as they investigated, but she didn’t seem to be having much luck. She didn’t want him to feel helpless and hopeless. She wanted him to have confidence that they would succeed.
“Leo, I know things seem bad right now, but everyone is working on this. We’re not going to let you down. And we’re not going to let Suzanne down.”
Leo looked at her like he was starting to believe what she was saying. However, before she could add anything else, Detective Grey noticed them.
“I hope you’re here to support Detective Doherty emotionally in a time like this, and you’re not trying to interfere with the investigation. I can’t be distracted by your actions while working on an important case like this.”
“Have you had any breakthroughs?” Trina asked. “Some good news we can latch onto?”
Detective Grey stared at them firmly. “I shouldn’t be discussing this with you, but there are many leads that we are following. We’re looking into the Wilway family connection and at the bullet. There are pieces of physical evidence that we are looking into. There was a tire tread not made by one of the three cars there that could belong to the killer. And we think there’s some sweat on the ski mask. It’s possible we could make a DNA match. We would just need something to compare it to.”
Trina smiled at Lydia. “That does sound like some progress. They’ve done well with collecting evidence.”
Detective Grey looked unamused. “We are detectives. We know what we’re doing.”
“We should get going,” Lydia said, not wanting to annoy the lead detective on this case.
She gave Leo a hug and then started to leave. After seeing her expression of affection, Detective Grey tried to show his support for his partner and placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder. However, it was clear that this physical expression was awkward for Detective Grey, and Leo was too upset to really notice.
Lydia left the station with Trina, feeling more determined. They had another of Suzanne’s clients that they wanted to talk to. She now felt like if she had a solid lead for one of her suspects, she could hand that person over to Detective Grey – and he might be able to use tires or DNA to turn it into a concrete case against the killer.
12
Caught Red-handed
The last of three clients that Lydia and Trina had deemed the most suspicious was named Lilly McHale. They had thought it was strange that Suzanne had placed a question mark next to this name in her appointment book.
Lydia realized that there was a chance that this question mark was related to a question about their meeting and not that Suzanne feared that the woman was murderous. However, she hadn’t made any other marks like that with her other clients. Lydia thought there was a chance that this was significant.
She and Trina tracked the woman down and arrived at her house. They planned to try their guise again where they asked to see the suspect’s house because they were considering hiring Suzanne as a designer.
However, all thoughts of their plan fled from Lydia’s head when she saw the woman who answered the door. There was red liquid on her hands that was only partially dried – and it looked like blood.
“Can I help you?” Lilly asked.
Lydia and Trina were staring at her hands, and she realized it. However, then Lilly let out a laugh.
“This looks like blood, doesn’t it? It’s only paint! Well, unless you’re saleswomen trying to get me to buy something – then it’s blood, and you better get out of here.”
Lydia found her voice and said, “We’re definitely not salespeople, but I have to admit that we did want to ask something of you. We’ve been considering hiring Suzanne Peppercorn to decorate my new house, and we’ve been trying to see some of her work in other people’s homes. Would you mind showing us your house?”
“I can’t help you,” Lilly said.
“Her brother is a detective,” Trina offered. “You could talk to him and learn that we’re trustworthy.”
Lydia nodded, though inwardly she was considering what Leo would actually say if he was put on the spot. He would have to realize that this was part of their sleuthing. Normally, he would not be pleased by this, but he probably would back up whatever they said if he thought it would help Suzanne – and he wouldn’t have to lie about being related to Lydia or that she was going to need her house decorated it.
“Ha!” Lilly said. “I didn’t think about the oddness of letting some strangers into my home. No. I meant that I can’t help because Suzanne Peppercorn hasn’t done any real design work at my house.”
“She hasn’t?” Lydia asked. “I suppose we must have gotten the wrong information.”
“It’s not wrong,” Lilly said. “Suzanne did come here. We were talking about having her work on my house. I wanted to do something bold, but I also didn’t really know what I wanted. I guess I should have done what you did and checked out some of her other work. I’ve heard great things about her, but she does tend to follow beach and nautical themes for homes around here unless you tell her that you want something else specific.”
“But you did meet with her before?” asked Lydia.
“Sure,” said Lilly. “I showed her the room that I wanted worked on. Do you want to see it? Come on in.”
Lilly gestured and then walked further inside the house. Trina glanced at Lydia.
“Do you think this is a good idea? What if that really was blood? What if we’re following a killer into their lair?”
Lydia felt a little nervous too but took a step inside. “There are two of us, so hopefully we could overpower her. And we need to see if Suzanne if here.”
“Okay. But I think you might not be keeping your promise to be careful.”
Rather than concede that her friend was right, Lydia followed Lilly into the house. She walked into the room and was immediately overwhelmed by the color choice that Lilly had chosen. The red walls caused her to squint.
Lilly looked self-conscious. “You caught me in the middle of painting. I think the color will be darker when it dries.”
“It’s oppressive,” Trina said. “I mean! Impressive.”
“Well, I wanted something bold. I wanted people to remember my house after they visited me.”
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“This will do that,” Trina agreed.
“I don’t know,” Lilly said with a shrug. “Suzanne tried to talk me out of a color like this. She said it might be too much in a space like this unless I dulled it somehow with what was in the room. But I didn’t want it to be dulled. I don’t know if I still feel the same. Maybe Suzanne was right. Do you think she was?”
“Well, it’s your home,” Lydia said graciously. “What’s most important is that you are happy here.”
“That’s true,” Lilly said. “And I guess I’ll see what it looks like when it dries. I’ve been painting my house all day. It really had me seeing red.”
Trina laughed.
“Has anyone else stopped by to see what you’ve been up to?” Lydia asked, deciding she might as well see if this alibi could be substantiated.
Sour Apple and Animosity Page 5