“Scott was hiding the letter,” Maggie said. “He must have found it in Margie’s crawl space. He didn’t give it to me when he could have. I only found it after it fell out of his coat pocket.”
“I admit, that sounds bad,” Hannah said.
“He could have destroyed it, and then you never would have known,” Ava said.
“That’s true,” Hannah said. “He was probably just waiting for the right time to give it to you.”
“But he’s known all this time,” Maggie said. “For seven years I have tortured myself, trying to figure out what happened, and why Gabe left, and all the time Scott knew. Don’t you see? I can forgive him for giving Gabe the option he did, but not for keeping it a secret from me.”
The phone rang. Ava answered it, and then took it around the corner into the hallway.
“What would you have done differently?” Hannah asked her. “I mean, if you’d known.”
“I don’t know,” Maggie said. “But Scott took away my opportunity to decide for myself. He decided what was best for me because it was what he wanted for me.”
“Scott almost died yesterday,” Hannah said. “I tried calling you all evening, but you weren’t answering the phone.”
Maggie didn’t say anything for a few moments, and just looked at Hannah.
“I heard you saved his life,” Maggie said, finally. “Delia just told me about it.”
“I told Connie there were snakes under her house and then I tased her. I was awesome. Like Wonder Woman, really.”
“How is he?”
“Go see for yourself. I’m headed out there around noon and you can come with me.”
“No thanks.”
“C’mon. It’s not fair to just cut him off without listening to his side.”
“Hannah, I don’t care what’s fair or right. I’m telling you, I don’t want to see Scott Gordon right now. I’m glad he’s not dead, but beyond that, I really don’t give a damn. Suddenly Gabe is not the man I thought I knew, and it turns out Scott is not the man I thought he was, either. Right now, I’m done with both of them.”
“Okay, okay,” Hannah said. “But I’m still going.”
Ava came back in, looking very relieved.
“I have some good news and some bad news,” she said.
Maggie lay her forehead down on her crossed arms on the front desk and rolled her head back and forth, saying, “I can’t take anymore.”
Delia came back in with the baby and Ava took him in her arms.
“The good news is that I am now legally this little guy’s mother,” she said.
Hannah congratulated her and Delia hugged both Ava and the baby. Maggie kept her head down on her arms, although she said, “congratulations” to the desktop.
“What’s the bad news?” Hannah asked.
“His real name is Ernest Hemingway Fitzpatrick.”
Maggie raised her head to laugh out loud.
“That poor child,” Delia said.
“So do we call him Ernie or Hemmie?” Hannah asked.
“I think we’ll stick with Fitz,” Ava said.
“So how did you get custody?” Maggie asked. “Wouldn’t Brian have to sign something?”
“He did,” Ava said. “In Sean’s office this morning he produced a death certificate for the mother, a birth certificate for the baby, and transferred all parental rights to me. I just have to sign and then it’s official; I’ve adopted him.”
“Where’s Brian now?”
“I don’t know if you’ll think that’s bad news or good news, so I’ll let you decide,” Ava said, and then filled them in.
Sarah Albright showed her identification to the nurse on duty, who led her back to Scott’s room. Scott was reclining against the raised upper half of his hospital bed, staring out the window. He heard Sarah enter the room and turned and looked at her, but his face did not change its passive expression. Sarah came around to the other side of the bed, put the flowers she’d brought on a side table, and sat down in the chair next to the window.
“How’re you doing?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Scott said.
“Does it hurt?” she asked, pointing to his head.
He turned so she could see where they had shaved his head and stitched the wound, and then pointed to the IV he was hooked to.
“I’ve got pain meds,” he said.
“No complications, then.”
“Nope. It turns out my head is just as hard as my mother says it is. Still, they’re keeping me another night for observation. I’ll be out tomorrow.”
“Do you want to talk about the case?”
“It’s not my case to talk about,” Scott said.
“I think you proved otherwise in a very dramatic way yesterday, don’t you?”
“Why are you here, Sarah?”
“Well, first of all, to apologize. I was way out of line, a lot of the time, and I deserved to get thrown out of your station.”
“Who are you and what’ve you done with Sarah Albright?”
“Ha, ha, very funny,” she said. “I mean it. I was wrong and you were right. I was an arrogant ass and you didn’t let me get away with it. I’m here to try to set things right between us.”
“Why?”
“Because we make a good team. Because I’d like us, if we can’t be friends, to at least be colleagues who respect each other. I’d like to try that.”
“Did you get in trouble or something?”
“No, I’m not in any trouble and neither are you, in case you were wondering.”
“Right now I don’t care about any of that.”
“I was right about Connie,” she said.
“She killed Newton,” Scott said. “Her confession’s on my voice mail.”
“Don’t worry, she’s telling anybody who will listen. She’s completely lost her marbles now, although she could just be laying the groundwork for an insanity plea.”
“I’d testify to that.”
“We found out who killed Margie, by the way.”
“Newton? Connie?”
“Nope. Newton’s darling spouse Delores.”
“That sweet lady, really?”
“That sweet lady indeed, with premeditation and malice aforethought.”
“How’d she do it?”
“Two days before Margie was murdered, Delores caught Connie snooping in Newton’s room, in the act of opening his briefcase. They had words, and Delores kicked her out of the room. Delores then found the pictures and the blackmail threat, and confronted her husband with them. He denied the photos were his, but admitted he was planning to pay the blackmailer rather than be publicly accused of so damning a crime. They argued, and she told him if he gave in to the blackmailer the demands would never stop. Newton insisted he was going to make the drop as instructed, and Delores said if he did she would leave him.”
“On Monday night Delores went to the pharmacy after it closed, used her key to get in, and stole some chloroform they still had on hand from way back. Back at the inn, she took a knife from Connie’s kitchen, the small glass bottle of chloroform she’d stolen, and a cloth with which to apply it, and put them in her purse. Connie’s cat came in her room while she was assembling her murder kit, and hissed and growled at her when she tried to kick it out. Delores was deathly afraid of cats and feared all the noise it was making would bring other guests out of their rooms to see what was going on, so she chloroformed it and took it back downstairs.”
“She told everyone that she was driving to Pittsburgh, where she would stay over for an early flight. Instead, she parked her rental car up on the corner of Rose Hill Avenue and Peony Street so she could see if the blackmailer approached the drop-off site by the steps next to the tire store or through the alley behind the fire station. Whichever way the blackmailer went, then Delores would go the other.”
“She saw Newton make the drop at midnight but the blackmailer didn’t show up right away. Delores waited six hours in the freezing cold before
Margie made her move. In the early morning hours, when she saw Margie walk up Peony Street and turn down the alley, Delores ran up Rose Hill Avenue and down the steps next to the old tire store, and hid behind the tires in the alley. When Margie pulled the money out of the old burn barrel, Delores chloroformed her, stabbed her with the knife, and then rolled her down the hill. She took the money, set the chloroform cloth on fire, tossed it in the barrel, and threw the knife down a storm drain up on Rose Hill Avenue. Then she drove to Pittsburgh and got on the next plane to Florida.”
“Did she confess all this?”
“Only after we confronted her with all the evidence. First we found out there was chloroform at the pharmacy where she worked part-time, and that she had a key. She also showed up on their security surveillance tape at the pharmacy on Monday night when she was supposed to be in Pittsburgh. When I questioned Connie, she mentioned arguing with Delores a few times about her cat being in their rooms. Your buddy the veterinarian sent the cat to his alma mater, where they autopsied it and found chloroform in its system. Delores mailed the blackmail money to herself in Florida so she wouldn’t risk it being discovered by airport security, and then opened a new bank account with the funds on the day it arrived. My team put all the pieces together and then we had her.”
“So did Newton write the suicide note and try to kill himself?”
“Connie wrote that message. When she couldn’t wake him she went through his briefcase, looking for his pills, and found them, along with the blackmail note and photos. She thought he was committing suicide because of the blackmail.”
“Why in the world did he keep the photos?”
“Delores said it was in case the blackmailer made additional threats. If she came back for more he planned to press charges, even knowing the consequences to himself. He needed the photos and blackmail note for evidence.”
“Margie had more photos, so she probably would have gone back for more.”
“He was willing to pay this once, I think, but no more.”
“Where is the wife now?”
“She’s in the county lock up, interviewing lawyers while her daughter gets her bail together.”
“When I talked to her, it did seem like the scandal bothered her more than losing her husband.”
“She almost got away with it. If Connie hadn’t killed him, Newton and Delores might both be vacationing in Florida right now.”
“So he didn’t try to commit suicide?”
“He took enough of the drug so that he was unconscious, but not enough to kill himself. Delores said he would often forget he had taken one pill and take another, and he was under so much stress that may have made him more forgetful. He had some wine at the board dinner, so that probably also contributed it. When Connie found him unconscious, saw the photos, the blackmail threat, and the vial of pills, she just assumed he had taken an overdose. She smothered him, wrote the suicide note, and then left the briefcase open so the connection would be clear.”
“Where’s Connie now?”
“She’s in the psych ward with a state trooper outside her door. Your buddy Hannah tased the daylights out of her. She also saved your life.”
“That’s what Frank said.”
“How did Connie get behind you?”
“The phone rang, and when she got up to answer it she knocked her cup of hot tea over on the table. I jumped up when it spilled all over me. She handed me a tea towel to wipe off my pants and I looked down for just a second.”
Sarah shook her head but didn’t make any smart remarks.
“For what it’s worth,” she said. “Connie says to tell you she’s really very sorry.”
“Oh well, that’s okay then.”
“That’s what I thought,” Sarah said, and smiled.
Scott took a deep breath, and then rubbed his eyes as he let it out.
“What time is it?” he asked her when he looked up.
“It’s 8 a.m. Friday morning. I was the first in line, and frankly, I was expecting your mother and Maggie Fitzpatrick to be here guarding you like a couple of junkyard dogs.”
“My mother doesn’t know about it, and I don’t want her to know. She’s in Virginia visiting my sister.”
“And the love of your life?”
“Maggie hasn’t been to see me yet. Do me a favor, will you? Hand me that jacket over there. I get dizzy when I try to stand up.”
Sarah handed Scott his jacket and he checked the interior pocket, which was empty.
“Maggie probably won’t be in to see me,” he said.
He closed his eyes and Sarah assumed he was in pain from his head wound.
“You’re kidding me, right?” she said. “I thought yours was the great romance of the twenty-first century.”
“I guess not.”
“You’ve had some crappy week, huh?”
“You could say that.”
“The silver lining, not that you care, is that you helped me solve two crimes, which made me look very good to my boss, which come to think of it, is my silver lining more than yours. But thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“And we’re good?” she asked.
Scott pointed at Sarah.
“No more potshots at Rose Hill or its crazy, murderous citizens. No more insults about my staff. And no more hitting on me.”
“Scout’s honor,” she said, and held up a few fingers in a salute.
“Then we’re good.”
Sarah left and Scott closed his eyes. A little while later a nurse woke him to take his vital signs and check his IV, and then he went back to sleep. When he opened his eyes again Hannah was in the room.
“What time is it?” he asked her.
“It’s lunch time,” she said. “Are you going to eat this?”
Hannah pointed to a tray of food on a rolling cart next to Scott’s bed.
“No, help yourself, please.”
Hannah seated herself on the end of Scott’s bed, pulled the rolling cart over, and started eating Scott’s lunch.
“So I hear you saved my life,” he said. “Thanks for that.”
“It’s a hilarious story,” Hannah said. “I’ll have to tell you all about it sometime.”
“But not now?”
“No, I think it’s a story that will improve with age, along with some embellishments I haven’t had the time to think up yet.”
“I heard there were imaginary snakes involved.”
“I am, as you often remind me, a natural born liar.”
“Tell me, Hannah, have you had enough excitement in your life lately?”
“Not nearly enough. I’m thinking of getting a cape and calling myself the Masked Mutt-Catcher. My super powers are corpse detection and the electrocution of skillet wielding innkeepers.”
“How are you and Sam doing?”
“Not good. Not good at all. That’s another hilarious story I’ll have to tell you some time.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that. Any stories about Maggie you’d care to tell me?”
“That one, not funny at all.”
“She read the letter, I guess.”
“Oh yes,” Hannah said. “But I think I’ll let you two work that out. I’ve got my hands full with my new crime-fighting career. Ed took my picture for the paper. I offered to do a virtual reenactment but he said that was not necessary. He interviewed me and everything.”
“Where is Ed?”
“He’ll be over later. He and Patrick are moving Mandy and Tommy into his house today while the sun’s still shining. We’re supposed to get yet another big snowstorm later.”
“That’s a sudden development; Mandy and Ed, I mean.”
“It’s not, not really. You’ve just been busy.”
“Any sign of Brian?”
“He’s been picked up by the FBI for questioning over the suspicious manner in which his Bahamas baby mama died, among other nefarious crimes.”
“So the baby was his, but who was the old lady?”
“You know, the low flat line on the Rose Hill crime statistics graph has made a sharp upturn over the past few weeks.”
“I think this crap has been going on for awhile,” Hannah said. “It just hasn’t seen the light of day until now.”
“Thanks, that’s a cheery thought for the new head of law enforcement.”
“Speaking of which, has the tiny paw of the law been to see you yet?”
“If you mean Sarah, then yes, first thing this morning.”
“For what it’s worth, she was really kind to me after the whole breaking and entering and zapping the crap out of Connie incident.”
“That’s good to know.”
“It doesn’t mean I want to be her new best friend or anything, I just thought I’d let you know.”
“What can I do about Maggie?”
“Not a thing,” Hannah said. “Not a blessed thing. You need to leave her be for awhile. And that’s my learned, sage advice.”
“I don’t know if I can take that advice.”
“I can’t either. The longer Sam goes without calling the more I pester him.”
Hannah pushed away the rolling cart and jumped up.
“Thanks for the lunch. You look like hell,” she said, and kissed him on the cheek. “I gotta scoot.”
“Thanks, Hannah, for everything.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” she said, posing with her hands on her hips. “It’s all in a day’s work for this crafty crime-fighter.”
Hannah saluted and left the room, and Scott closed his eyes again. A nurse woke him long enough to record his vital signs again, and then he slept for awhile longer. When he woke next, Ed was in the room.
“Who am I, where am I, how did I get here?” Scott said in a fake, weak voice.
“Tracked mud into Connie’s clean kitchen is what I heard,” Ed said. “She doesn’t put up with that kind of crap. Showed you some discipline.”
Scott showed Ed his head wound.
“Ouch,” Ed said. “You should tell people it was a bad haircutting accident.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s six o’clock. They just brought you some supper. Looks pretty awful to me, but if you’re hungry...”
Morning Glory Circle Page 31