by Olivia Swift
“So, big day,” Jazz added. “Get the place shipshape and collect Dex.” Kim left them to get first dibs on the bathroom and Evan managed a good night kiss.
“Maybe,” Jazz wondered as they reluctantly pulled apart, “we should visit the old man again…you know…just to see if he is okay.” She smiled, and Evan held her hand.
“Maybe one more little bit of detective work,” he agreed.
* * *
The morning was a busy rush of sorting the nursery and then going up to Chestnut Hall. Carly and Ben arrived, and the four of them set to work to make the place livable again.
“Look,” Ben said and held up a piece of card. “This looks like part of a business card, and I don’t recognize it.” Evan looked and said it was not something of his. Nobody knew where it came from so they slipped it onto the worktop to peruse later. Then Jazz picked it up and found the Ryder Property website on her phone.
“Evan, this is the same color as the property people.” He took it and they all crowded round and agreed.
“I don’t suppose those two would trash the house themselves, but they might have sent someone,” Evan remarked.
“The same ones who tried to run us off the road,” Jazz added. “Evan and I are going to see the old gardener again and then pick up Dex. Can you hold the fort please, Carly?” Carly jingled her many pieces of jewelry and said it was no problem.
“I’ll put water and some flowers beside his bed,” she added. “as a welcome back,”
“Thanks,” Evan told her. The house was put to rights, and before they left, Evan called Mackay about the little piece of card and told him what they thought.
“I’m not pointing the finger at anyone, but we have seen them recently.” The detective thanked him for calling and said he would be over to talk to them later.
In the car, Jazz remarked that it looked more and more likely that the property dealers were involved somehow.
“But they were too young thirty years ago to have any part in what went on,” Evan pointed out.
“They could be protecting someone,” Jazz said. “I wonder where the father did actually go.” They were taken to the gardener’s room, and he smiled with delight to have morning visitors.
“Have a coffee,” he offered, “and tell me what’s been happening.” The two of them recounted the visits to various places and told him about the encounter with the truck. He was suitably shocked.
“But why?” he asked. “Why would anybody do that?” Jazz shook her head and said they had been asking the very same thing.
“Old Mr. Wendell has been dead for a long time, and his son didn’t want anything to do with him or the house anyway. The fact that we found an old knife and a watch means nothing to anyone, and there is nothing unusual in the grotto in the garden.”
“Maybe we discovered something, and we don’t know that it is important.” Evan continued. The old man thought back over the years.
“I can’t think of anything. Mr. Wendell relied heavily on both Molly and Jed,” he paused. “I do think that maybe Jed was a bit jealous of how close Molly was to her employer. Maybe that was why he left in the end. He was a quiet man. He would leave rather than argue I would think.”
“There was talk that Molly may have been a bit more than a housekeeper,” Jazz ventured, and the old man smiled.
“I heard all of that, but it’s all a long time ago. Molly certainly couldn’t drive a truck into your car.” He chuckled, and Jazz smiled back. She mentioned that the detectives now had the knife and watch, which Jazz and Evan had discovered in the grotto, and they were looking for DNA.
“You never heard from Jed once he left?” Evan queried, and the gardener shook his head.
“I always hoped he met someone and settled down to a new life somewhere. The second wife was appreciative of what he did around the house, but the old man was a bully. No doubt about that.” After some chat, the two excused themselves and drove to the hospital to find Dex sitting on the bed ready to leave. The doctor warned him sternly about taking things easy and handed Evan the painkillers she had prescribed.
“Come on, wounded soldier,” Evan told his brother.
“Take him to the car in a wheelchair, ”the doctor said and surprisingly, he did as he was told. Jazz thought that maybe he was weaker than he was showing everyone but joked about sitting on his knee.
“I’m not pushing two of you,” Evan protested, and they made it back to the car. The house was clean and tidy, and Carly had added flowers in a vase on the kitchen table. She saw them arrive and came to see how Dex was feeling.
“He has to take it easy,” Jazz put in before he could answer. “Although he says he is fine.” Carly said that a couple of days rest would be enough and he would be as good as new.
“I’ll whip up something to eat for all of us,” Evan said and started to find the ingredients. “Go and invite Ben and Rob as well please.” Jazz said she would go because she could check how much work there was to do and Carly said that Rob had left anyway to find the decking supplies. She saw that the border was nearly finished and just needed extra plants and the garden, stone, and water feature looked fantastic. Ben was raking the gravel in the grotto and accepted the invitation immediately.
“I’m starved,” he said. She glanced in the grotto, and reminded herself to find ferns, and ran to catch him up on the way to the house.
* * *
Dex found that his appetite was absolutely fine and joined the others in demolishing everything that came his way. Evan loved seeing people enjoy what he cooked, and after huge burgers with salad and fries that were equal to anything that the golden arches could provide, they found he had crumble and cream with coffees to follow.
“Wow,” Ben said and sat back. “That was awesome.” “I tell you,” Jazz said. “He should open a restaurant.”
“Call it The Climbers Cave or something like that,” Carly added.
“I think he should just keep cooking for me until I feel well again. I am the invalid here,” Dex protested and his brother threw a towel at his head.
They settled on sofas and chairs and wondered if they could forget the old stories and the police would deal with anything that came up. As they mentioned the detectives, by coincidence, the two men arrived and knocked at the kitchen door.
“We were just talking about you,” Evan said. “Come on in and have a seat.” Mackay and Sanchez said that they had some news from the lab about the knife and the watch. The senior man took a phone from his pocket and found the information.
“Of the material that was on the watch from a long time ago, there was a little on the underside of the watch case that showed who had worn it and the material on the knife blade that you thought was rust.” He looked at them. “It was blood and different DNA as the wearer of the watch.” There was a general indrawn breath from the people in the room.
“So, he was probably murdered?” Dex asked, and the detectives both nodded.
“Or she,” Sanchez added and gave them all pause for thought.
“Gosh, I never thought that before,” Jazz replied and the others nodded.
“We’ll need your DNA just to eliminate that from what else is on the knife,” Sanchez spoke again and pulled out some small packs to take the samples. He showed them how to run the spatulas inside their mouths and put them safely into plastic bags.
“The thing is, we do not have a match on record for this DNA. Thirty years ago, it was not a database that was collected very seriously, and if the person who held the knife had no criminal record, we do not even have fingerprints,” Mackay told them.
“Is there a fingerprint?” Evan asked, and the policeman told them that there was a partial print on the knife handle but it could not be conclusive proof.
“So, we don’t know who the victim was, and we don’t know who the murderer was?” Jazz queried, and the detective agreed.
“We don’t even really know if there was a murder. Blood on the knife could be from a wound,
” Mackay added. “If it wasn’t for the attempt on your life and the house being searched, I would be inclined to leave it in the past.”
“Somebody now must still be trying to hide something,” Carly joined in. “The two property men were too young to be involved thirty years ago.”
“Strangely enough, we have one of them on the DNA database from a driving incident. His DNA is nowhere near a match and would go a long way to eliminating his father as well.”
“We can find no trace of the gardener, Jed Baker, leaving the country,” Sanchez added. “He might still be somewhere around.”
“The girl, Camille,” Mackay asked. “Have you a contact for her because she had a connection that might be worth following up.” Before anyone could answer, the door opened, and Miller walked into the room.
13
“I am already here,” Miller said and stayed just inside the door.
“We have DNA on the old knife, and the watch has a different DNA,” Mackay told her. “We have a sample from Malo Baker, but it doesn’t match either of them.”
“We need yours as an elimination exercise please,” Sanchez stepped towards her with a new package and then stepped back as the door opened behind her and an elegant woman, beautifully dressed, stepped inside.
“And may I ask who you are?” Mackay stood up as the newcomer entered the room.
“This is my mother, Maddie Delonga,” Miller said with half a smile. There was a stunned silence for a second while everybody took in this information.
“We just assumed that you were passed away,” Jazz said. “Miller never said that you were still around.” She held out a hand to the woman who took it and looked at the detectives.
“Maybe I can clear some things up,” Maddie told him. She was a striking and beautiful woman who looked like an older version of Miller. Jazz had taken in the dress, which looked very like a Victoria Beckham she had seen in a magazine. The links of the chunky rose gold necklace were very much what was in fashion, and a rose gold shoulder bag and killer heels matched them. She was a picture of elegance and wealth. At the same time, the woman was relaxed and gave out a friendly warmth to the people in the room. She was someone you instinctively liked.
“Come and sit down,” Evan invited the two visitors, and they all waited for her to begin the story. She took a breath.
“Until yesterday, I never even told Miller the story of what happened all those years ago. Yesterday I told my husband, and he agreed that I should come and try and help you.” Miller held her mom’s hand and said that it had all come as a bit of a shock to her as well. Maddie went on.
“I am now called Maddie Hollenbeck, and my husband is a businessman in the food wholesale business.” She paused, and Miller took the opportunity to say that Rick Hollenbeck had been a real father to her. Maddie nodded and went on. “I never actually married Jeremiah Wendell. He could be charming when it suited him, and it wasn’t until I moved into the house that I discovered what a bully he was.” She took a breath. “He was generous with money and bought me jewelry and I had an allowance in the bank account. I could spend on most things as long as I did as he wanted me to.”
“What about Molly Baker?” Jazz asked, and Maddie shot her a look that understood what she was asking.
“She manipulated him. In her own way, she was very clever and made herself indispensable. She never wanted me in the place.” She looked around. “The house feels much better now. Her husband was a lovely man that she treated dreadfully. I never meant it to happen, but I fell in love with Jed Baker.” Her eyes clouded for a moment and she hesitated. Miller squeezed her hand.
“Mom has just told me yesterday that Jed Baker was actually my father.”
“I was devastated when he never came to meet me. He never answered my calls. Eventually, I accepted the fact that I was on my own and pregnant and made a life for the two of us.” She paused for breath. “Afterwards I realized that I had escaped from a bad situation and had a wonderful daughter. When Miller told me what had happened, I thought that maybe he had been killed and couldn’t come to meet me.” A few tears squeezed out of her eyes, and she let them roll unheeded down her cheeks. Jazz went and found some tissues.
“If your daughter’s DNA is a part match for the blood on the knife, then that would point to the fact that you may be right,” Sanchez observed.
“I did bury some jewels and cash in the grotto. It was all mine. It had been given to me. I wasn’t stealing anything. There were some things of my own that had been my mother’s, and I always regretted losing those. They were packed in boxes… quite big boxes.” Maddie continued, and Miller produced the emerald.
“This is real, and Mom says it is very like the ones she buried. It is worth a lot of money.”
“Do you mind if we keep it as evidence for the moment?” Mackay asked, and she handed it over to him.
“The thing is, we never found anything to say that a body, apart from those very old pieces of bone, had ever been in the garden,” Evan said.
“It’s unlikely that a body would be buried here,” Mackay answered. “Murderers like places that are filled with concrete or weighted bodies in rivers.”
“We might never find a body,” Sanchez added, “after thirty years.”
“We’ll find out about the DNA and keep on digging,” Mackay told them. “Just be careful all of you.”
The two detectives left to continue the investigation and Evan offered the newcomers coffee.
* * *
Maddie Delonga had a lot of questions about what had happened since she left. Evan and Jazz told the rest of them about the vacation bungalow.
“I suppose that Molly worked her way into his good books until he left her all of the money,” Maddie surmised, and Jazz nodded.
“Carlton Wendell never went back and never wanted anything from his father. He says he saw him hit his mother many times.”
“She would have a clear run once you left,” Evan added, “and was probably left the money legally.”
“Her sons own the house she still lives in,” Dex joined in. “She would have helped them get started, and they have a big business empire.” Maddie looked at him.
“He was good at making money, an entrepreneur of his time. I guess the boys inherited that.” “We’ll never know what happened to Jed Baker,” Evan said.
“It is so sad,” Miller added. The two women were about to leave when Maddie chanced to ask what Molly’s vacation home was like and Jazz described it. She mentioned the collections they had seen by looking in the windows.
“The bedroom was full of what looked like musical boxes and jewelry boxes.” Evan joined in.
“Well if there was a large glass one with a ballerina, that was my mother’s.” Jazz gasped and grabbed her arm.
“There was. It was just inside the window and very striking.” The woman stared at her in amazement. Evan called Mackay and passed this new information on to him. He said they would visit Mrs. Baker and ask about it.
“Mom, you might get it back. That would be wonderful.”
The two women left and said they would keep in touch and Jazz said that she had better start work on finishing the garden. Everyone got back to doing what they should be doing, and Evan waved a hand as they left and answered his phone. By the time Jazz had planted the border and the ferns and watered everything in, it was late in the day. She had not seen Evan since the meal and when the rest of her team had gone. She went back to the house to catch up with him and found Dex packing a bag. He stopped what he was doing.
“Evan got an urgent phone call from New York and left straightaway. I guess he’ll give you a call.” It was a bit of a blow, but she accepted it, and Dex added that he had to go home for a while as well.
“I’ll give you this spare key,” he said and handed it over. They said their goodbyes and Jazz locked the house and went back to the nursery. She felt miserable and knew it was because Evan had left without speaking to her. Not for the first time, she wonde
red what had caused him such pain before he bought Chestnut Hall. She and Kim worked in the nursery until everything was in order. Jazz had two containers with plants to go to the entrance to the grotto and decided to take them up.
“That will be the job finished,” she said, “apart from Rob finishing the deck platform. I won’t be long,” she added and drove away. Kim watched her go and hoped that Evan was not going to let her sister down.
14
Jazz found a wheelbarrow and took the containers to sit outside of the grotto. All was quiet and she looked around. It had turned out well and she was pleased with the result. She stepped back to view the planters and out of the grotto stepped a man with a gun in his hand. He had a mask across his face and wore nondescript clothes. Jazz froze on the spot.
“Little Miss Interference,” he said quietly. “I think you and your boyfriend had better be dealt with.” Jazz fleetingly thought that she didn’t want to die alone and fighting was not an option, and without really thinking about what she was doing, she jumped onto the garden and started to climb. She dodged up and down as she went and felt a bullet zip past her ear. The attacker stopped shooting at the moving target and decided to give chase. Jazz knew the zigzag path by heart now and climbed up the alpine garden quickly, but the man was agile even though he was quite a big man. He took large steps and followed where she climbed. Her heart was beating so hard that she thought it might explode. Her breathing was ragged, and she was terrified but through the mist of terror a plan popped into her head, and she acted on it.
Jazz reached the top of the alpine garden and saw the half-filled tank at the top. She waited for a second and then stepped across the open gap and ran off down the path made by Rob through the trees. She heard the shout and turned to see that she was not pursued. Maybe it had worked. As she retraced a few steps, Jazz grabbed her phone and called Mackay. She heard scrabbling noises and swearing from the old water tank, and picking up a branch to wield as a weapon, she looked cautiously over the side.