Kilt Dead

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

  “And you didn’t tell him?”

  “I would have if he hadn’t been so snarky. Then I thought, why don’t I take a look around for myself. If I found something we could use to convince your aunt to sell cheap, he’d give me credit for it. I’ve got to say that much for him—he’s fair with commissions.”

  “Did he kill Mrs. Norris?”

  “How would I know?”

  Barbara’s perfume, Liss thought, wasn’t the only thing about her that stank to high heaven. “You must have suspicions. He claimed he was with you, as if he needed an alibi.”

  She shrugged. “Could have been something else he didn’t want people to know about. Maybe out at the ho—” She bit off the word, then shrugged. “Oh, hell, I’ve said this much. If he killed that old woman it won’t make much difference anyway. He’d been talking about doing a little sabotage out at The Spruces. Helping Joe Ruskin along toward failure so he could step in and scoop up the pieces. I don’t know if he did anything or not, but he did talk to some guy Joe’d fired.”

  Some alibi for the time of the murder if he did, Liss thought.

  “You need to go to the police,” she said aloud.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Think about this. If you don’t tell them your suspicions about him, what’s to stop him from pointing a finger at you?”

  “I don’t know it was Jase in there. Could have been anybody.” And with that, Barbara refused to say more.

  In the middle of the night, Liss woke from an uneasy sleep. No matter how she tried, she could not drop off again. She kept going over what Barbara had said and what didn’t fit.

  Barbara wasn’t the murderer. Her perfume would have lingered in the stockroom if she’d killed Mrs. Norris. And if she’d broken into Aunt Margaret’s apartment, Liss would have smelled it throughout the living room and kitchen.

  Jason Graye was a more likely killer. She could imagine him pushing Mrs. Norris. What she couldn’t fathom was why he’d return to the scene of the crime. It had not been to steal the blue binder. Graye didn’t even know it existed.

  So who had searched the apartment and what had he or she been looking for?

  Whoever it was had to be the same someone who’d taken Aunt Margaret’s key, and that was the murderer. Wasn’t it?

  For some reason, Liss found herself thinking about the safe and what was in it. And what wasn’t. She’d found the papers Aunt Margaret had said would be there, but not her diamond ring. She’d meant to check her aunt’s jewelry box for it, but so much else had been going on that it had slipped her mind.

  Throwing back the covers, Liss padded barefoot into the other bedroom. A quick search revealed that the ring was not there, either.

  Wrapped in an afghan, legs curled beneath her on the living room sofa, Liss sat in the dark and considered what that meant. There was no escaping the unpalatable conclusion.

  She thought about calling the police to tell them what she suspected, but there didn’t seem much point in it. Twice burned, third time shy. She had a pretty good idea what LaVerdiere’s reaction would be to any suggestion she made.

  By the time the sun came up, Liss had already downed three cups of coffee. She watched Dan head off for work. She’d have called him after her return from Barbara’s if he’d been home. He hadn’t yet returned by the time she went to bed. This morning . . . well, he’d only try to talk her out of what she wanted . . . needed to do.

  At a little past seven, she left Aunt Margaret’s apartment, too impatient to wait any longer. She was halfway to her destination, walking swiftly, before second thoughts overtook her. She did not believe she would be in any danger, but it wouldn’t hurt to take one simple precaution. As she continued on, she pulled out the cell phone Dan had insisted she borrow and called the sheriff’s office in Fallstown. Sherri had just started her shift.

  Liss was standing in front of Ned’s building by the time she’d filled Sherri in on what she’d decided to do and why. “Promise you won’t say anything yet,” she added. “If I’m wrong, I don’t want to embarrass myself or my cousin. If I’m right, Ned deserves the chance to do the right thing.”

  “Liss, you’re making a mistake. A big one.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’ll call you back in a couple of hours and let you know what happened.”

  “Liss—”

  “Relax. This is Ned.”

  As she returned the phone to her purse, clicking “end” as she did so, she thought she heard Sherri say, “That’s what worries me.”

  This time Ned didn’t see her coming. Everything else was the same. His disheveled appearance, the piles of discarded clothing, the miasma of neglect about the entire apartment.

  Suddenly feeling awkward, Liss said the first thing that came into her head: “You need a cleaning lady.”

  “Can’t afford one.” He sounded testy. “Look, Liss, can’t this wait? You got me out of bed. I haven’t even had coffee yet.”

  She hung a left into his tiny kitchen. “I’ll make you some.” Wrinkling her nose in distaste at the sight and smell of dirty dishes in the sink, she foraged for the makings. It surprised her a little to find a fancy French press instead of a coffee pot. The coffee blend she found in the refrigerator had been fresh-ground at Patsy’s within the last few days.

  Ned disappeared while she was filling a glass measuring cup with water. He returned just as it came out of the microwave. He’d washed his face and combed his hair, but hadn’t bothered to change from the baggy sweats and t-shirt he’d slept in. Well, why should he? She was family, and uninvited, besides.

  “Ned, we need to talk.” Keeping one eye on him and one on what she was doing, Liss poured the boiling water over the coffee in the French press and gave it a stir with a long-handled spoon.

  “Sheesh. Why do women always say that?”

  His attempt at humor fell flat. Liss set the microwave timer for five minutes and turned to face him. “You were the one in Aunt Margaret’s apartment the other night.”

  Ned was not awake enough to hide the flash of guilt that accompanied his automatic denial. Liss felt as if she’d just taken a body blow. She’d had her suspicions, but she’d kept hoping she was wrong. This was going to kill Aunt Margaret.

  “You can’t lie your way out of this one, Ned. I know what you did. I even know why. The only thing left is to decide where we go from here.”

  The timer dinged. Automatically, she finished making the coffee and poured two cups, adding sugar and cream to Ned’s. She knew how he liked his coffee, but until now she’d had no clue what he was capable of. Abruptly, Liss sat, wrapping both hands around her mug, but she didn’t want more coffee. She wanted something much stronger.

  Ned took the chair opposite her. “What do you think you’ve figured out?”

  “You knew Lumpkin bit ankles. But you also claimed you hadn’t been in Mrs. Norris’s house in years. So how did you know that? Lumpkin is an indoor cat. The only place you could have encountered him, and his teeth, was in your mother’s apartment in the middle of the night.”

  His smile was more of a sneer. “That’s your logic?”

  “There’s more. I know what you were after. When I talked to Aunt Margaret, she told me what was in the safe. She wasn’t sure about one item—her engagement ring—so when it wasn’t there, I wasn’t too concerned. But then I got to thinking.” She gestured at their surroundings. “You were short of cash, out of a job. Maybe you decided to help yourself to something you expected to inherit one day anyhow. You didn’t find it in the safe, so you tried again later and took it from her jewelry box.”

  “Think you’re smart, don’t you?”

  “I think there was a terrible accident on the the day you broke into the safe. Obviously you didn’t intend to hurt Mrs. Norris.” If he’d only admit the truth to her, turn himself in to the authorities, she’d help him all she could. He was family. She couldn’t abandon him just because of one terrible mistake.

  He drank more coffee, watching
her intently over the rim. “You’re right about a couple of things,” he said at last, “but not all of it. I spent an hour or more going through the shop and the apartment looking for cash. Mom used to stash twenties all over the place—for emergencies.”

  “I remember finding one in the cookie jar once.” Liss almost smiled.

  “Yeah. Well, I came up empty there and everywhere else I looked. I didn’t dare take any of your stuff. All that was left was Mom’s jewelry box. She only has a couple of good pieces and I figured she’d notice if they went missing, but I needed rent money. I was all set to take them and hock them down to Fallstown, even if she would figure out I took them, when I found a slip of paper in the bottom of the jewelry box with the combination to the safe on it. That’s when I remembered her diamond ring.”

  “Wait a minute. The ring was in the safe? I thought that’s what you were looking for when you came back.”

  “I had the ring.”

  “Then why were you in the apartment the other night?”

  He shrugged. “You’re a list-maker. Always have been. Just like my mother. After you said you were going to snoop around, I figured you’d be keeping track of what you found. I wanted to see if my name was on one of your little lists. I couldn’t find any,” he added in an accusatory tone.

  “I had them in the bedroom with me.”

  “Figures.” The look he sent her over the rim of his coffee mug was full of resentment and something else she could not quite identify.

  Increasingly uneasy, Liss kept her eyes on her cousin. As long as he was willing to talk, she’d listen. She wasn’t prepared to give up on him quite yet, although it was getting harder not to be judgmental. He didn’t seem to be sorry for anything he’d done, just angry that she’d found out too much to be put off by his lies.

  “I’d just taken the ring out of the safe when Amanda Norris walked in the back door, bold as you please. She had the nerve to ask me what I was doing there.”

  “She saw the ring box?”

  “Of course she did.” Ned sounded disgusted. “That eagle-eyed old bat never missed anything.” He took another swig of coffee.

  “But why did she come in just then? If you’d been in the house for hours—”

  “Said she saw someone snooping around outside and wanted to check on things.”

  Barbara, Liss thought.

  “Probably just made that up as an excuse to snoop. I’d left the back door unlocked and she just waltzed right in. Caught me red-handed. I was ticked at myself for being so careless. I’d put the key in my pocket and never given it another thought. Well, I never expected anyone to question my being there. It’s my mother’s place, after all.”

  He was still irritated that Mrs. Norris had challenged him, Liss realized. Surely that wasn’t a normal reaction.

  “Anyway, there she was in the stockroom, acting like I was still in third grade. Said I’d better put that ring back or she’d tell on me. I said, ‘Get out of my way, old woman,’ and I started to leave. I wasn’t about to put up with a lecture from an old busybody like her. She stepped right into my path, like she thought she could stop me. I swear, Liss, I just meant to shove her out of my way, but I was pretty mad.” He raked his fingers through his hair, the first outward sign of agitation Liss had seen from him. “I guess I pushed her too hard, because the next thing I knew, she’d bounced off the shelving and was lying on the floor and bleeding.”

  On the last word, his bravado evaporated. His face suddenly ashen, he shuddered convulsively. “She hit real hard, Liss. Her head made an awful sound when it struck the shelving.”

  Liss covered his trembling hand with one of hers. “It was an accident, Ned. You didn’t mean to kill her.”

  “She was dead. She was dead and if I’d stayed there everyone would have known I was the one responsible.”

  “It was an accident,” Liss repeated. “If you’d turned yourself in, the authorities would have seen that right away. Manslaughter at worst. Not murder. That will still be the verdict if you contact them now.”

  “You can’t be sure of that. I can’t be sure of that. I did the smart thing, the sensible thing. I got the hell out of there before anyone else came along.”

  He was sweating and his eyes had a glazed look. He was remembering. Liss had no respect for the choice he’d made, but she felt sorry for him.

  “Ned? Ned, you have to do the right thing. You know that.”

  “The right thing?”

  “You have to call the police. I’ll hire a lawyer for you. A good one.” Given the circumstances, he might not even have to serve time in jail.

  Ned’s eyes blinked back into focus. “Do you know what I thought about doing when I was in Mom’s apartment that night and you were sleeping blissfully in the guestroom?”

  “No, Ned, I don’t.”

  “I thought, what if Liss were to commit suicide? Then everyone would be sure she killed Mrs. Norris. They’d say she couldn’t live with the guilt.”

  Liss stared at him, horrified to realize that he was perfectly serious. And that was exactly what LaVerdiere had thought, after her car—

  “Ohmigod! You did something to my car! I could have drowned,” she added in a horrified whisper.

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen. You were just supposed to go into a tree or something.”

  “Oh, thank you very much!”

  He shrugged.

  “What . . . what did you do?”

  “Poked a hole in an intake hose.” He sounded proud of himself. “Created a vacuum leak. Figured it would take you up to maximum speed and when you tried to brake, you’d lose control.”

  “But you didn’t intend for me to end up dead.” She couldn’t quite keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

  “Well, no. I just wanted to put you out of commission for a while. And if the cops thought it was a suicide attempt, so much the better. You were sniffing around, getting too close. Besides, it’s your own fault I was able to pop the hood. You’re the one who left your car unlocked. I just happened to be in Fallstown that day. I saw you go into the real estate office, realized the car was out of sight in that little parking lot. . . .” He shrugged.

  Temper provoked her into speech. “You’re lying, Ned. You didn’t just happen to know how to rig an accident with my car. You aren’t an expert on engines. You had to have gone online and done some research.”

  His eyes narrowed. “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Besides, I’d never have had to do anything to the car if Ruskin hadn’t shown up at the wrong time at Mrs. Norris’s house.”

  She thought back to the day she and Ned had gone in together to feed the cat and blanched. “What did you plan to do? Push me down the stairs?”

  “I was thinking about it. You just had to meddle, didn’t you? I didn’t really want to hurt you. Liss. I’d probably have changed my mind that day. But now—now I’ve got no choice. You know too much.”

  Liss stood so rapidly that her chair toppled over. Ned mirrored her action in slow motion, making her excruciatingly aware that he was taller, wider, and stronger than she.

  “This won’t work,” she whispered. “I told Sherri I was coming here.”

  “Not a problem. I’ll be properly distraught when your body is found.”

  “How on earth are you going to make it look like suicide, Ned? You can’t strangle or shoot me. That would pretty obviously be murder.” Her heart hammered in her ears. She hoped she wasn’t going to faint.

  “Scared, Liss? You should be. You always were annoying. Tagging along where you weren’t wanted. Snooping. And then that old bat left you all her money! Was that fair?”

  She’d always thought of Ned as lazy and laid-back. She’d have described his eyes, if she’d considered them at all, as dull or sleepy. Now they blazed with hatred. Fear of exposure had driven him over some invisible edge. He was beyond listening to reason.

  “A fall is always good.” He sounded as calm as if they were discussing the weather or wh
at to have for supper. “We’ll go up on the roof. It’s not all that high, but it’ll do the job. And I can tell everyone how you came here to confess to me, then ran up there and threw yourself off.”

  She might survive a fall. Maybe. But she had no desire to find out. “How are you going to get me up there?”

  “You can walk. Or I can clip you on the jaw and carry you.”

  “I’ll walk.” And hope she’d be able to get away.

  Pushing her ahead of him, one hand firmly clasped around her upper arm, he guided her into the hallway, deserted at this time of the morning, and up the roof stairs. They came out onto a nearly flat surface. Low parapets surrounded it, just at a convenient level to trip over. Someone had left an aluminum lawn chair set up. Liss supposed the roof was occasionally used for sunbathing, but no one was there today, nor were the odds good that anyone would notice them up here. Even if they did, a struggle at the edge of the roof would be interpreted in hindsight as Ned trying to keep her from jumping. Winners wrote the history books. Hadn’t Mrs. Norris said that, way back in third grade?

  Liss bided her time. If she was going to escape, she had to lull Ned into a false sense of security. He hadn’t seen that much of her in the last ten years. She was still the much-younger cousin to him. The tag-along.

  “Can’t we talk about this?” She tried to make herself sound desperate and weak.

  “Sorry, Liss. This is the best solution all around.” He gave her a shove toward the edge of the roof.

  She wasn’t going to get a better chance. The moment his hand left her shoulder, she whirled and kicked. Even after three months of retirement, in spite of the bumps and bruises she’d sustained in the last few days, years of dancing had left Liss with strong legs and an agility her cousin lacked. Her flying foot caught him in the shoulder.

  “You bitch!” he bellowed, staggering backward. He stared at her, enraged and disbelieving.

  The jarring force of the blow had Liss’s newly healed knee protesting the sudden resumption of high-impact exercise, but she ignored the pain and took advantage of Ned’s surprise to grab the lawn chair. She swung it hard, connecting first with the middle of his chest, then with the side of his head. Ned’s eyes rolled back as he went down.