A Candidate For Murder (Old Maids of Mercer Island Mysteries Book 2)

by Lynn Bohart

  Dana watched him disappear at the head of the stairs and then her head swung back in our direction.

  “You’re not fooling me,” she said. “How the hell did you get in here?”

  Rudy snapped the book closed. “You’re the one who told us we could search the house at any time,” Rudy said innocently. “Perhaps we took you up on your offer.”

  Those beady eyes flew open in surprise. “You wouldn’t!”

  She glanced at each of us, as if to see if we were holding onto any secrets. Then she spun around and marched toward the hall table that held the note. She opened the drawer and pulled out the envelope and glanced inside without saying a word. She was about to replace it, but quick as a wink, Rudy scooted across the living room gesturing for us to follow. By the time Dana was ready to slip the note back into the drawer, we were all standing right behind her. Blair tapped her on the shoulder. She whipped around with a look of surprise that almost made me laugh.

  “What’s that?” Rudy asked innocently. She snatched the envelope from Dana’s stubby fingers with lightning speed and pulled out the sheet of paper. She allowed her eyes to scan the page. “Oh look you guys. It’s a threatening note.”

  Doe grabbed the note and held it to her nose. “Gee, it has a funny smell,” she said. “I do believe that’s barbeque sauce.”

  Dana reached for the note, but not before Blair grabbed it, turned and walked away with it. While Dana protested from behind, Blair read the note out loud, and then she whipped around to face Dana. “Dana, this could be important evidence. Why haven’t you given it to the police?”

  Dana snatched the piece of paper away from Blair. “Because I just received it yesterday afternoon,” she said. “And…and I hadn’t decided what to do about it. Besides, it’s none of your business.”

  “What do you mean it’s none of our business?” Rudy demanded coming up on the other side.

  We had formed a complete circle around Dana now, and she was looking mighty uncomfortable.

  “You’re the one who asked us to help investigate Trudy’s murder, and you’re the one who invited us over here tonight to discuss it,” Rudy said.

  “That’s right,” Doe said. “You promised that you had told us everything.”

  Blair leaned in and wagged her finger at Dana like a nasty teenage girl. “You’re holding out on us, Dana. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Dana backed toward the staircase and bumped into a wastebasket, knocking it over. Some loose paper fell out, along with a big wad of cash.

  “What’s that?” Rudy said, quickly slipping behind Dana. She grabbed the roll of bills before Dana could stop her. “Well, I guess we missed this,” she said. “Is this the blackmail money?”

  Dana stared at Rudy, her lips pressed together. She glanced nervously up the stairs, as if afraid that Clay might hear, and then finally exhaled like a deflating balloon.

  “Yes. That’s what I was doing this afternoon. Like I said, the note just came yesterday. I don’t know who it’s from… I…there’s no stamp or return address on it. Someone must have just left it in the mailbox.”

  “So you withdrew the money and were going to hand it over?” I asked in surprise.

  “Wouldn’t you? Whoever this is, is trying to kill me.”

  “And you think by paying them off, they’ll stop?” Rudy asked.

  She slumped back against the table. “I don’t know. Probably not. That’s why I wanted you to keep digging.”

  “Oh, save it, Dana,” Rudy snapped. She handed Dana the money and marched over to the bench where our coats and purses were. She grabbed her coat and threw it around her shoulders and then grabbed her purse. “You’ve been wasting our time from the beginning. And I for one have a whole lot of other things I could be doing rather than sitting around your house on a weeknight waiting for you to come home. Let’s go, girls,” she said, starting for the door.

  The three of us swept past Dana and also grabbed our coats and purses. Rudy had the door open, and we were just about to leave. Dana stopped us.

  “Wait!” she said with a raised hand. “Don’t go. I do need your help. This note scares me. This whole thing scares me. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. I’m not making good decisions.”

  Rudy used one hand to swing the front door closed again. “Okay. Then besides the abuse, why else would someone blackmail you?”

  Dana’s eyes shifted from one to the other of us as she contemplated her answer. Then her entire body relaxed in defeat.

  “Because when I was very young…I was responsible for someone’s death.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  It was after ten-thirty, and we were back in Dana’s living room. Her husband, Clay, was still upstairs. Dana was in the wingback chair, this time looking a little green around the edges. It must be hard to have every mistake or indiscretion of your life exposed, and it made me wonder briefly how I would feel. But then, I thought, nice people didn’t do the things that Dana did.

  “Originally, I wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “So right out of high school, I trained to become a home health aide, while I saved for tuition. I was actually very good at taking care of other people. And my clients loved me. Especially an old gentleman named Mr. Peabody, who was dying from lung cancer. He was receiving hospice care in his home. He lived alone, with the exception of a housekeeper. He had no other relatives and no real friends.” She stopped, took a breath and glanced down at her hands. “We became very close. “

  “Oh God, you don’t mean…” Blair blurted.

  “No, not that!” Dana said, glancing up. “For heaven’s sake, give me some credit. I’m not some Anna Nicole Smith.”

  Blair nearly choked at that. I’m sure she hadn’t meant to physically compare Dana to the blond bombshell who had married a millionaire in his nineties. Besides the difference in hair color, there was the difference in, well, everything else.

  “Let me guess,” I said. “The old guy put you in his will.”

  She glanced at me, her gaze momentarily frozen in place. She might as well have had the word guilt written across her enormous forehead.

  “He…he didn’t have anyone else,” she said in a wormy sort of way. “And he told me I reminded him of his daughter, who had died very young.” She paused, as if deciding whether to go on. Finally, she said, “So he had his will changed, leaving everything to me.”

  “Oh, my God,” Rudy said. She dropped her head into one hand.

  “It’s not like that,” Dana said, glancing at Rudy defensively. “I didn’t kill him. He died naturally…well, sort of.”

  Rudy lifted her head and looked at Dana with suspicion. “Don’t tell me. You just didn’t save him, did you?”

  There was a long pause. A very long pause.

  Doe finally groaned as Blair muttered under her breath, “Sheesh.”

  “The lung cancer made it hard for him to breathe or even to swallow,” Dana finally said. “So the housekeeper used to cut up his food into very small pieces. One day, she left his lunch in the kitchen and went to the store with instructions for me to give it to him. He…uh, choked on some broccoli. It was awful. He kept trying to get a breath, and then his face started turning blue.”

  “And you didn’t do anything to help him,” Rudy said.

  This time Dana stared at Rudy. “I was so young. I didn’t know what to do,” she said in a defensive tone.

  “That’s not exactly true, is it?” Rudy said, her eyes narrowing. “To become a home health aide, you have to have been trained in CPR and things like the Heimlich maneuver.”

  Dana turned fearful eyes in my direction, but I didn’t come to her rescue.

  “How could you do that?” Blair exclaimed.

  Dana turned to Blair. “He was in a lot of pain. All the time. He would’ve died in a few months anyway. This was better, don’t you think? More humane.”

  “Oh jeeze,” Blair said, standing up in disgust. “You killed him as sure as if you had stuck a knife in
his back. And now it’s come back to haunt you. This and your husband’s preference for little boys. I, for one, am done with you.”

  Blair left for the foyer, and the rest of us stood awkwardly and followed. Dana panicked again. “No. Don’t…” she said, running after us. “Don’t go. I’ve been honest. That’s what you wanted. You promised you would help me.”

  Rudy turned to Dana as she donned her coat a second time. “I keep looking for a redeeming quality. Something that will make me feel good about helping you, Dana. But I just don’t see it.”

  “So you’re all just going to leave? You’re going to leave me to fend for myself?”

  I had just slipped into my own coat and grabbed my purse. I looked at the girls’ faces. What I saw were varying degrees of contempt and anger. But we’d made a promise, and I thought we should keep it.

  “We did say we would help,” I said to them. “And we forced her to tell us everything. None of us ever expected Dana to be an angel.”

  “We didn’t expect her be a walking encyclopedia of bad behavior, either.” Rudy almost spit the words out.

  I stood my ground. In situations like these, Rudy would usually carry the day. Her take-charge attitude and her brusque manner would normally overshadow anyone else’s objections. But not this time.

  “We made an agreement, Rudy. We need to follow through.” But then I turned quickly to Dana. “But you have to give the blackmail note to the police and tell them the same story you just told us.”

  Her eyes opened in surprise as she took a quick intake of breath. I could feel the objection coming, so I put up my hand.

  “Don’t even say it. You have no choice in the matter. You either tell the police, or we will. Along with the story about your first husband and his penchant for young boys.”

  She dropped her head and nodded in defeat.

  “All right, then. Do that first thing in the morning. Then meet us at the Inn at 11:00. We’ll need to make a plan.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The next day dawned with a slate gray sky, a light breeze, but no rain. The temperature had risen to a balmy 48 degrees, and there were promises of sunbreaks later in the afternoon.

  As scheduled, we met at 11:00 a.m. Dana had delivered the note to Detective Abrams, who was back from Vancouver. He had, in fact, learned much of the same information Rudy had, but he’d also been successful in tracking down some leads on Dana’s ex-husband, Vince Fragel. Not the least of which was that he’d been incarcerated for embezzlement at one time under an assumed name.

  I’d forgotten to tell Dana about the man who had shown up at the Inn asking about her. Instead, Detective Abrams filled her in. The news put her on edge, and she wondered out loud if he was the one who had sent the blackmail note. But Detective Abrams had instructed Dana to return her money to the bank, and that they would find a female officer to stand in as a decoy at the appointed time for the money drop that afternoon.

  “So, I guess there’s nothing for us to do,” she said as we sat around the kitchen table. “We’ll just have to wait and see who they pick up.”

  Rudy was tapping her fingers on the table, gazing out the window. The Brewsters stood at the end of the dock, each with a cup of coffee. Rudy’s competitive nature had led to a college scholarship in women’s track and field, and she’d been the pitcher on the women’s softball team. Now, she played fast-pitch. But even as a female jock, she’d won the state spelling bee in high school and earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Communications from the UW. Add to that a short stint on the debate team, and you can see why I called her “The Boss.” Her verbal skills matched her pitching arm, and right now I could almost see her brain churning as it stewed on our current situation.

  “What are you thinking, Rudy?” I asked. “I see smoke coming out of your ears.”

  She turned her tan, weathered face toward me, her brown eyes narrowed in a squint. “The person who sent that note can’t be Dana’s ex-husband.”

  “Why not?” Dana blurted.

  “What time did you pick up your mail yesterday?” Rudy asked her.

  “Uh…about 1:00, I think.”

  Rudy looked at me. “What time did Crystal say that guy stopped by the Inn asking about Dana?”

  “Around 3:00 p.m.,” I replied. “Oh, I get it. You’re right.”

  “You get what?” Dana asked, looking back and forth between the two of us.

  “Your ex-husband was asking where you lived yesterday afternoon at 3:00. But you’d already picked up the ransom note at 1:00. In your mailbox.”

  I saw the lightbulb in Dana’s head sputter. She was a little slow to pick up on things.

  “Dana,” Rudy said. “At 3:00 your ex-husband didn’t know where you lived. So how could he have been the one to leave the ransom note in your mailbox earlier that day?”

  The lightbulb popped on full force. “Oh! So, it must have been someone else,” she said. She looked even more uncomfortable at this revelation. “So Vince is looking for me, but someone else is blackmailing me?”

  “And don’t forget someone’s trying to kill you,” Blair said with a helpful smile.

  Dana grimaced. “Thanks. Now what?”

  “What time were you supposed to drop off the money?” Rudy asked Dana.

  “At 3:30 this afternoon,” she said.

  “Hmmm…that could be right after the shift change at the restaurant,” Rudy said thoughtfully. “Okay, why don’t we see if we can ID the blackmailer first?”

  “How do we do that?” Dana asked.

  “The restaurant,” Rudy said.

  Doe turned to me. “Are you sure you want to do this, Julia? Remember what David said about staying out of this.”

  “What? I can’t go have lunch?” I said. “I like barbeque.”

  We looked up the restaurant online and scoped out the picture of the building. It sat in a strip mall off Sunset Boulevard in the Renton Highlands. The front of the restaurant was two giant windows, making it easy to see inside. So we discussed our options and decided on a plan.

  We gathered our coats and emerged from the kitchen into the breakfast room. The Kohl family opened their door and noisily began to descend the stairs just as we rounded the corner into the reception area. As I came into the entryway, the kids saw me and ran down the stairs.

  “I think I saw one of the ghosts last night,” Barry said excitedly. “It was peering in the window.”

  “He’s making it up,” Sherrie said, stopping behind him. “He’s just trying to scare me.”

  “I am not,” Barry said, pushing her shoulder. “You’re just a fraidy cat. The ghosts won’t hurt you, will they Mrs. Applegate?”

  Their parents had come up behind them.

  “Barry, stop that!” Mr. Kohl ordered. “I don’t like this nonsense. I told you, it’s just a marketing ploy, like Santa Claus.”

  He had clenched his gloves under his elbow as he reached into his pocket to grab his keys. I watched with amusement as the gloves began to move. It looked as if someone was pulling them from behind his elbow. Another second and they hit the floor.

  He looked down in surprise.

  “Where are you off to today?” I said, deflecting their attention.

  “We’re heading over to my mother’s in West Seattle,” Mrs. Kohl said. “And then we’re going to take the ferry over to Bainbridge Island.”

  “Well, that sounds like fun,” I said insincerely.

  Mr. Kohl bent down to pick up his gloves, but they moved sideways an inch before he could retrieve them. He adjusted his stance and reached for them again. Again, they moved. The kids were already arguing over something, while their mother tried to referee. The rest of us just watched while prim and proper Mr. Kohl chased his gloves across the floor.

  I finally stepped forward and stomped my foot on them. He glanced up at me, his face red with anger, and then yanked them out from under my shoe.

  Rudy opened the door. “Have a great time,” she said with a big gr
in.

  Mrs. Kohl and the kids went outside, while Mr. Kohl lingered. He leaned over to me, blowing coffee breath into my face.

  “I don’t appreciate tricks. And I doubt the Better Business Bureau would either,” he said in a threatening manner. He turned and marched out the door.

  “Don’t fall overboard,” Rudy called after them, as they climbed into their rental car.

  ÷

  We took two cars to the restaurant: my Pathfinder and Doe’s Mercedes. Once there, Doe and Rudy went inside to order lunch. Blair stayed behind in the Mercedes as backup. Dana and I sat in my car, parked right in front with two pairs of binoculars.

  The goal was simple: scope out the restaurant personnel to see if Dana knew any of them. Doe and Rudy purposely picked a table near the window and sat down. A few moments later a young man delivered glasses of ice water and then left. We continued to watch while the girls toyed with their water glasses and the utensils on the table. A young waitress arrived a minute later with a notepad. Dana leaned forward, peering at her through the window as Doe and Rudy ordered.

  “Did you recognize either the boy or the girl?” I asked, as the young woman left with their order.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  We sat there for a few minutes watching people come and go. An older man and a woman parked next to us and entered the restaurant. As the door opened, I noticed a middle-aged woman near the back, wearing an apron. She was standing behind the order counter. I nudged Dana.

  “What about her?” I said, pointing to the back of the restaurant.

  Just as Dana adjusted her binoculars, the door swung closed. She dropped her hands in frustration. “Darn it,” she said.

  “Come on, keep looking through the window. She’s bound to move back and forth and maybe you can see her.”

  Dana held up the binoculars again, scanning the interior of the restaurant. “I can’t see her,” she said. “I’ll have to get closer.” She started to reach for the door handle, but I grabbed her wrist.