by J A Whiting
“Dr. Streeter,” Courtney replied.
Betty let out a little gasp. Courtney narrowed her eyes wondering if Betty would have gasped if she’d reported that her dentist was Dr. Chase.
Finch carried a chair to the table so Betty could sit. She began to babble. “Those poor people. Who would do a thing like that? Right here in our town. What is the world coming to?” Betty patted her chest. “Dr. Streeter came to see me not long ago. She wanted to put their house on the market, but needed to convince her husband to go along with selling it. She was such a sweet person.” Betty took a sip from Finch’s teacup and, ever the business woman, her thoughts returned to the dentists’ house. “That house. It will go on the market eventually, but the circumstances surrounding the place will make it a very hard sell. A double murder in there? Oh, my, people won’t like that at all. Well, I suppose the possibility exists to tear it down and build something new, if it becomes impossible to sell the property.”
Finch patted the woman’s hand. “No need to think about that now.”
“Don’t they own that blue Lamborghini?” Rufus asked. Rufus was a car lover and knew a lot about different makes and models, the auto industry, and antique vehicles. “I saw it in town the other day. Pretty flashy.”
A shiver ran over Courtney’s skin when her boyfriend mentioned the blue car. “I didn’t realize it was a Lamborghini.”
“Those two must have been raking in the money. I’ve seen them in a red Mercedes and a white Ferrari, too.”
“Really?” Angie asked, a twitch of something pinging her senses. “They own all of those cars?”
“I should have been a dentist instead of a lawyer,” Rufus lamented. “If I’d known how much you could make as a tooth doctor, I’d have switched my studies in a second.”
Rufus’s words swirled in the air and something about them picked at Angie like sandpaper rubbing against her skin.
4
Euclid and Circe sat side by side on the bottom step of the wide, carved staircase staring at the front door.
“The cats are making me nervous,” Ellie whispered.
The Roselands and Mr. Finch sat around the dining room table eating a custard flan with fresh strawberries. Chief Martin informed them that Marilyn Streeter would be arriving after dinner and they were all interested to make her acquaintance.
“They are eager to meet this woman since she has a connection to the late Dr. Streeter,” Finch said. “There’s nothing to worry about, Miss Ellie. It is a sense of curiosity, not of foreboding.” He hoped.
“Still.” Ellie glanced over her shoulder at the felines. “They don’t usually do that, sitting there, keeping watch.”
The doorbell rang and Courtney jumped up to answer. The family friends, Mel Able and Orla O’Brien, stood on the porch and when the door opened, they entered the foyer and smiled at the family.
“Hello, Roselands.” Mel’s booming voice echoed off the walls. Spotting the cats, he greeted them. “And hello to the two fine felines.” In his early seventies and carrying quite a few extra pounds, Mel bent to scratch the cats’ cheeks and loud purring filled the air as he asked them, “Have you been sitting here waiting for us? How did you know we were coming?”
“Actually,” Courtney told Mel and Orla, “they’re waiting for someone else.”
The friends took seats at the table and Angie cut slices of the flan and passed them to Mel and Orla.
“I missed your wonderful desserts.” Orla, in her late sixties with auburn curls and hazel eyes, sighed with delight at the taste of the smooth, creamy custard. “The best I’ve ever tasted.”
Mel and Orla had met at the Victorian’s bed and breakfast several months ago and the two had fallen in love with one another. Orla had paranormal powers and when she was staying at the B and B, she’d helped Ellie subdue a criminal who had broken into the house with murder on his mind. Mel and Orla also fell in love with the pretty seaside town and promised to return in the spring for Jenna and Tom’s wedding and to make Sweet Cove their permanent home.
“How’s the house hunting going?” Jenna asked.
“Betty has taken us around to five different places, but nothing’s been right yet,” Orla said with a chuckle. “I guess we’re too picky.”
“We have certain requirements,” Mel boomed. “They haven’t been met yet.”
“What sort of requirements?” Ellie eyed them.
“Nothing strange, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Mel sipped from the glass of sherry Angie had brought him. “We want to be within walking distance to the center of town … and the price has to be within our budget, of course.”
“Other than that,” Orla said, “we just want a small, cozy place, nothing fancy, with a bit of a garden out back to have a picnic table, some chairs, and a little space for flowers and vegetables.”
Mel sat up straight, looking proud. “The house hasn’t worked out yet, but I have some news … I am now gainfully employed.”
“You got a job?” Courtney stared at the man. “I thought you were retired?”
“I am retired, however, I feel the need to be useful.” He winked. “Also, a part-time job keeps me out of Orla’s hair a few hours a day.” Mel’s bald head shone under the light of the chandelier. “I have landed a job at the stained glass shop in town.”
“Francine’s place?” Jenna asked.
“That very store.” Mel nodded.
“Do you have experience in stained glass?” Finch asked.
“None at all, but I have painted, made jewelry, and I know my way around a pottery wheel. Francine thinks I’ll be able to pick up the art of stained glass in no time at all. In the meantime, my duties include waiting on customers, preparing objects for shipping, taking orders, and the like. I started this morning.”
“Francine is lucky to have you,” Jenna told Mel with a smile.
“Congratulations on your new job.” Finch raised a glass and the others happily joined in. “What about you, Miss Orla? Do you have plans to find employment?”
Orla dabbed her lips with her napkin. “Not right away. I’ve been so busy for years, I’d like to find a home, do some decorating, get us settled. Then maybe I’d like something part time.”
“Is there something in particular you’d be interested in doing?” Finch asked.
“I was a hair stylist many years ago. I also did skin care.” Orla pushed a curl from her eyes. “I dropped into Gloria’s salon the other day and we had a chat. She said she knew all of you very well.” Gloria owned and operated a hair salon in town and despite having some paranormal powers of her own, she didn’t talk about them and was very discreet about her “skills.”
“So,” Mel said, taking a look over to the staircase. “Who are the cats waiting for?”
“A new guest,” Ellie said. “She should be arriving any minute.”
“Friend or foe?” Mel raised an eyebrow.
“That’s to be determined,” Angie told them.
“You heard about the murders in town?” Jenna cut Mel another piece of the flan and set it on his plate.
Orla’s eyes darkened. “We did. Everyone in town is talking about it. Are you giving the police a hand in the matter?”
“We are.” Courtney nodded.
“Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.” Orla made eye contact with the Roselands.
“The woman we’re expecting is the sister of the murdered dentist, Carlie Streeter.” Angie picked up her glass. “She’ll be staying here with us for a few days.”
“Well.” Mel placed his fork on his plate. “I’m glad you told us. I’ll be careful about what I say to her.”
“Perhaps we should head to the carriage house,” Orla suggested. “The poor woman would probably be more comfortable without a lot of people sitting around the table.”
As soon as the words were spoken, the cats meowed and Euclid arched his back. A second later, the doorbell sounded.
Everyone exchanged looks and Ellie rose s
lowly and moved to open the door. Mel and Orla said goodnight and headed out the back way to their carriage house apartment.
A tall, slim woman in her mid-forties came into the room pulling a rolling suitcase. She held a caramel-colored leather briefcase in her other hand. Her hair was blond and cut short in layers around her face and she had on a blue skirt and a yellow short-sleeved shirt with a blue suit jacket hanging over her arm. The woman’s manner was direct and to the point. “I’m Marilyn Streeter. People call me Mari. Police Chief Martin said a reservation had been made for me here.”
“Yes, come in.” Ellie introduced herself and led the woman to the table. The family greeted Marilyn and offered her some refreshments which she refused. Ellie brought the registration forms and asked the new guest to fill them in. “We’re very sorry about the loss of your sister and brother-in-law.”
The muscle in Mari’s jaw tightened. “Thank you.” She wrote quickly over the forms while Ellie explained about breakfast, afternoon snacks, and all-day beverages. “In the summer, we have drinks and appetizers out in the garden three evenings a week.”
“I’ll need to work while I’m here,” Mari said. “Is there a spot in the house besides my room where I can have some space to work?”
“What do you do for work?” Mr. Finch asked pleasantly.
Mari turned her blue eyes on the man and answered without expression. “I’m a physicist. I teach at a university in Boston and also do work at a lab in California.”
“How very interesting. Perhaps we could chat sometime while you’re here.” Finch smiled.
“Perhaps.” Mari turned to Ellie. “So is there somewhere I can work?”
Ellie led the woman to the sunroom. “We have a quiet sunroom off the living room and there’s a library on the second floor. I’ll show you.”
When they were out of earshot, Courtney kept her voice low when she said, “She’s not very friendly.”
The cats growled low in their throats.
“She is here under difficult circumstances,” Finch said. “She probably needs her privacy right now.”
Angie had been quiet while the woman filled in the forms. A wave of unease had washed over her when Mari arrived at the Victorian, but she couldn’t sort out what it meant.
“A physicist,” Finch remarked with admiration. “The Streeter siblings were well-educated, ambitious people.”
“Mari is about ten years older than her sister,” Jenna observed. “I wonder if they were close.”
“Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to talk with her.” Courtney stood up to clear the table. “If she’s willing to give us some of her time, maybe we’ll learn a few things.” Stopping before heading to the kitchen, she said, “Was Mari in Boston this morning?”
Everyone turned to Courtney.
“I wondered the same thing.” Angie gathered some cups to take to the dishwasher. “Our new guest doesn’t seem that broken up about the loss of her sister.”
“Chief Martin will find out where Mari was this morning.” Jenna helped her sisters with the dishes. “I’ll head home after we clean up. Tom won’t be happy to hear we were at the scene of a double murder today.”
With the two cats following behind him, Mr. Finch leaned on his cane and carried the flan dish in his free hand to the kitchen. “There are many questions that need to be answered before the puzzle can begin to take shape. I hope to have a chance to speak with Dr. Mari tomorrow.” Finch’s eyes twinkled. “I thought of having breakfast here in the morning.”
“Good idea, Mr. Finch.” Ellie came into the room. “Come early, in case Mari is an early riser. She’s settled in her room now. I tried to engage her in conversation, but she wasn’t interested. She was eager to get to work in the library.” Looking from sister to sister, she said, “If one of you had passed away, I would be so distraught I wouldn’t be able to think straight. I’d be in tears for months. This woman seems hard and uncaring.”
“People handle grief in different ways, Miss Ellie,” Finch said. “Perhaps the two women had a falling out and weren’t close or the age difference may have been such that they never formed a strong bond. Relationships can be very complex and complicated.”
Ellie sat at the kitchen table with her elbow on the tabletop, her chin in her hand, and a faraway look on her face. “What did you say bothered you about that car in the dentists’ driveway?” She directed the question to Courtney.
“I got a strange feeling about it.” Courtney paused while washing the flan dish in the sink. “It was vague, but something about that car seemed off. It made me feel creepy.”
“When is Chief Martin coming over?” Ellie asked.
“He isn’t coming over tonight.” As soon as she spoke, Jenna’s eyes widened and she turned around and stared at Ellie as Angie’s phone buzzed with an incoming call.
From on top of the refrigerator, Euclid let out a low hiss.
Angie picked up her phone, saw who was calling, and while carrying it out to the back hall to answer, she gave Jenna a look that said, she did it again. Although Ellie denied it, she had the uncanny ability to sometimes anticipate a phone call or a visit from someone.
When Angie returned from speaking on the phone, her face was covered with a tense expression of worry. “It was Chief Martin. He has something to talk to us about. He’s on his way over.”
Jenna raised an eyebrow and frowned. “I guess I won’t be going home just yet.”
5
Angie got the fire pit going so the heat of the blaze would chase away the slight chill in the night air. The sisters and Mr. Finch decided to talk outside with Chief Martin to keep the conversation private in case Mari Streeter wandered downstairs.
The stars glimmered in the inky sky and a half-moon glowed creamy white. Angie thought what a pleasant night it would be to sit near the fire with drinks, roast marshmallows, and make s’mores … if their gathering was a social one, which it wasn’t.
Mugs of coffee and tea were passed around and everyone pulled up Adirondack chairs. Circe sat on Mr. Finch’s lap and Euclid stretched out next to Courtney, the two of them squished together in the seat.
The chief cleared his throat and looking over to Courtney, he said, “You were right about the car.”
Anxiety pulsed through Angie’s veins and she tensed waiting to hear the news.
“The investigators went over the house and the garages and they popped the trunks on the vehicles.” He paused. “There was a body in the trunk of the blue car.”
Ellie gasped louder than the others did.
“Do you know who it was?” Jenna gave a shiver.
“Not yet. It’s a young man, maybe in his late twenties, short brown hair, dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a buttoned-down shirt. None of us recognized him from the area. He didn’t have a wallet, no ID on him.”
“What was the cause of death?” Angie asked with a concerned tone.
“Undetermined as yet. No visible gun shot or knife wound. We’re waiting on the medical examiner for more information.”
“Have you told Mari Streeter about this?” Courtney questioned. “Maybe she could identify the young man.”
“I haven’t spoken with her yet.” The chief’s expression told them it was not a task he was looking forward to. “I have a meeting scheduled with her early in the morning at the station. The news hasn’t been provided to the press so she shouldn’t hear anything until we meet, but maybe it would be best if I come here instead of having Dr. Streeter come to the station tomorrow. I don’t want her to overhear anyone discussing the new information, should it leak out.”
“We can tell her in the morning that you’ll be coming here to talk with her.” Angie nodded.
“This discovery adds another dimension to the case,” Finch observed. His hand moved gently over the black cat’s soft fur.
“It certainly does.” Chief Martin let out a long breath.
“I wonder how long the young man was dead?” Jenna thought out loud. “Was he in the c
ar’s trunk before the couple was killed … or after?”
“Did that car belong to the couple?” Ellie asked.
“Rufus said he noticed the car in town the other day,” Courtney informed the chief. “Could they have just purchased it?”
“The ownership of the car is being looked into as we speak.”
“If it was a new purchase, was the body in the car when they brought it home?” Courtney asked. “Or, did the dentists kill that young man?”
“I didn’t think of that,” Angie said slowly, a look of disgust on her face.
Euclid raised his head and growled deep in his throat.
“When the young man is identified, it will help determine some common threads between people.” Finch adjusted his glasses. “At least, I hope it will.”
“I do have some information on the couple.” The chief removed his small notepad from his back pocket and flipped it open. “Dr. Carlie Streeter was born and grew up in Connecticut. Her parents were both teachers. Both have passed away. She had the one sister, Mari. A smart girl, Carlie excelled in her high school classes and was a track star. She went to UPenn on a running scholarship, graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 average, then went to dental school at Harvard.”
“How did she meet her husband?” Jenna asked.
“They met when Carlie was doing her clinical practice work. Dr. Chase was about ten years older. They started dating when Carlie graduated and the two decided to open a practice together in New Hampshire. They stayed there for almost nine years. Just about six months ago, they moved their practice to Sweet Cove and bought the manor house.”
“Do you know why they moved here?” Finch asked.
“Not yet.” The chief set his mug down on the grass next to his chair. “I hope the sister can shed some light on these kinds of questions.”
“I had an appointment with Dr. Streeter about six months ago,” Courtney told the group. “She asked me a lot of questions about myself. I couldn’t talk very well with my mouth wide open so she could check my teeth, but I asked her where she’d lived before. She told me the same things, that she’d grown up in Connecticut and had moved here from New Hampshire. When I asked what prompted the move, she only said that they wanted a change. I didn’t realize it at the time, but now when I think back, she was evasive in her answers to the few questions I managed to ask.”