by Jessica Beck
“Annie, I’m sorry I left so abruptly yesterday. I hope I didn’t cause you much difficulty.”
“It was fine. Skip stepped up and took over.”
Edith’s nose crinkled a little. “That’s even more reason that I’m sorry,” she said, trying her best to make light of the situation. “He certainly has his own style of filing things.”
“I’m sure that he did the best that he could, given the circumstances,” I replied. I wasn’t about to let her say anything disparaging about her substitute.
“Of course. That was unkind of me. I must thank him for stepping in at the last second.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go overboard about it,” I answered with a grin. “After all, he was well paid for it. We do need to talk about what happened, though.”
“You’re not firing me, are you?” Edith asked, her expression suddenly filled with dread.
“What? No! Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Whenever someone has told me that we need to talk in the past, it’s never turned out well for me.”
“I’m not saying that this will be painless, but you can’t just walk out on us like that and expect there to be no consequences. What did Pat or I say to you that was so upsetting?”
“Must I?” Edith asked, and suddenly she looked as though she were about to burst into tears. “I thought it was all buried in the past, but it keeps recurring like a bad dream. Will it never stop?”
“Do you know what I’ve discovered to be the best way to deal with a secret?” I asked her.
“What’s that?”
“Expose it the light of day. That way it doesn’t have any power over you anymore.”
“I wish it were that simple, Annie,” she told me.
“Why isn’t it? Is it really that bad?”
“I think so,” she said. “The truth of the matter is that my husband was a thief.” Edith said it as though every syllable caused her pain.
“What do you mean?”
“His business was in trouble, and he took money from my father without his knowledge or consent. If he’d only asked me, I could have gotten it for him, but he was too proud to do that.”
“Not too proud to steal, though,” I said.
“Exactly. The way that I found out was even worse than the actual theft. Mitchell Wells told me all about it, and then he threatened to expose my husband unless I did something for him.”
“I’m almost too afraid to ask what he wanted in return,” I said.
“No, it wasn’t anything of a personal nature. My father was bidding on a project that Mitchell wanted desperately. My job was to sabotage my father’s bid to make sure that he didn’t get it. I worked in his construction company’s office during the summers, so it was something that I could do. I just couldn’t bear the thought of betraying my father. If I didn’t, though, I’d be betraying my husband. No matter what I did, one of the men I cherished most in my life would suffer. It was almost more than I could stand.”
“What did you do?” I asked her, intent on hearing her response. I’d never had an inkling that she’d had so much trouble in her life. To me, she was simply Edith, a woman of a certain age with a vivid zest for life. This was not the person in front of me now, though. As she’d talked about her past, she’d taken on a beaten look of sadness, aging years right before my eyes.
“I was saved from acting by providence alone,” she said. “Someone killed Mitchell before I had to decide, and I was saved from making a choice. After the murder, I asked my husband about his finances, and he broke down and confessed. Together, we went to my father, explained the situation, and worked out a repayment plan. I’m not saying that my father ever fully forgave him, but the two did still manage to get along after that.”
“Did either man know what Mitchell was trying to do to you?” It was a question I had to ask, no matter how hard it might be on her.
“Are you asking me if one of them could have done it? That would have been impossible. I never breathed a word of what happened to anyone. My father had a heart attack and died eight months later, and you know when I lost my husband. Besides, on the night of the murder, we were all in Atlanta watching a play. I kept the ticket stubs in my scrapbook. As a matter of fact, I still have them, along with a photo of the three of us in front of the theater. Mitchell wasn’t killed because of my secret, and neither was Albert.”
I took that all in for a moment. “Then why did you overreact the way that you did yesterday?”
“Because I was ashamed! Annie, I didn’t have to commit the act that was being demanded of me, but I’d made up my mind, so if the thought is the deed, then I’m guilty.”
“You were going to protect your husband, weren’t you?” I asked.
“What makes you say that?”
“It’s what I would have done in your place. Your father would have understood.”
“You clearly didn’t know the man. He nearly disinherited me when we told him that my husband had stolen from him. If I’d betrayed him as well, he would never have spoken to me again.” Edith began to weep silently, and I put a hand on her shoulder just as Pat stuck his head out from the back room to see if we were finished. I shook my head, and he dove back inside as though the front were on fire.
“Edith, you did everything in your power to make things right. You’ve got to stop beating yourself up over it.”
“I know you’re right, but it’s hard. Even after both men are gone, I still carry the scars around with me.”
“I’m curious about one thing. If no one else knew your secret, then why did Albert think you might have killed Mitchell?”
“He knew that Mitchell had something on me, but he didn’t know what it was. The man kept browbeating me, and I finally told him he could go bark at the moon, that I wasn’t going to tell him anything. I knew that it wouldn’t satisfy him, but I wasn’t about to expose what had happened so many years ago.”
“Just in case anyone asks, do you happen to have an alibi the night Albert was murdered?”
“Let’s see. I had dinner with Nancy Craig and Margery Fanjoy in Charlotte. We stayed late and caught a movie together, and we didn’t get back to Maple Crest until well after midnight.”
“That should be just fine,” I said. The two women she’d mentioned were beyond reproach, at least in my mind, and at the moment, that was all that counted.
Edith took my hands in hers and said, “Annie, promise you won’t tell anyone what I just told you. It would shatter me if people knew what happened all those years ago.”
“I can make that promise, with two exceptions. Pat needs to know, and so does Kathleen. Edith, you can trust me and my family to take your secret to our graves, but I have to tell them both.”
“I understand. I trust you all. After all, you’re my family now, too.”
I hugged her. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with us until the bitter end.”
She smiled softly, a good sign if ever there was one. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get things ready for my first patron.”
“You’re excused,” I said. “One more thing, Edith.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me what happened.”
“I should be the one thanking you for understanding,” she said as she disappeared into her domain, the small post office where she was the only ruler.
“What happened with Edith?” Pat asked me softly a minute later when I returned to the back.
“She didn’t do it,” I said.
“That’s it, then? Do you believe her?”
“I do, and you will too, once I bring you up to date. She has alibis for both murders, but I don’t think we’re going to need either one of them.”
“If you say so. To be honest with you, I’m kind of relieved being able to take her name off our list of suspects.”
“You and me both,” I said. “Now it’s down to Ollie, Sally, and Harriet. I’ve got a hunch that one of those three p
eople killed both men.”
“Then let’s get started digging into their pasts, and their presents,” he answered.
CHAPTER 20: PAT
My twin sister and I were ready to start detecting again.
Unfortunately, none of our three remaining suspects showed up at the Iron all day. We’d brought Kathleen up to date on what we’d uncovered. She’d been grateful for the help, but she didn’t have anything to add to our general fund of knowledge, either.
Or if she did, she chose not to.
I’d decided not to push it. I knew that Kathleen was bound by rules that didn’t apply to my twin and me. If we were going to solve the two murders, we were going to have to do it on our own.
“Well, today was a bust,” I told Annie as I finished filling out our deposit. “We did a fair amount of business, but I would have traded every dime of it for a shot at the last three people on our list.”
“Are you kidding?” Annie asked. “I wouldn’t. We’ve got the money, and now we get to go find them and do what we’d planned to do here; interrogate them.”
“I don’t know how much of an interrogation any of them will stand for. Besides, I’ve got an idea,” I said as we headed out, being careful to lock up behind us. I was driving again, mostly by default.
“That’s more than I’ve got, so I’m game for just about anything. What did you have in mind?”
“I want to take a little detour before we go talk to anybody else,” I said as I pulled out of the parking lot.
“I don’t think we have time to see a movie, Pat.”
“That wasn’t what I was suggesting,” I said.
“Where are we going, then?”
“I’ll tell you after we drop the deposit off. You don’t have any plans this evening, do you?” I asked her.
“No. Why do you ask? Do you?”
I smiled. “Not tonight.”
She nodded. “Then it’s just the two of us. To tell you the truth, I’m fine with that.”
“So am I.”
I hadn’t mentioned running into Molly the night before, and I wasn’t planning to, when Annie surprised me by bringing it up herself. “Did you run into anyone else at the restaurant last night that you knew?”
“You saw her there too, didn’t you?”
“I did, but I was kind of hoping that you got out of there before she showed up,” Annie said. “I know we said that we weren’t going to talk about our evenings, but there’s something that I’m just dying to know. Did seeing Molly ruin your evening with Jenna?”
I debated not answering, but then I decided there was no reason not to. “For ten or fifteen minutes, it felt as though it might, but I somehow salvaged the evening.”
“How did you manage to do that?” she asked me with a broad grin.
“No, ma’am. That I’m keeping to myself.”
“Spoilsport,” she said as I pulled up at the bank.
“This will just take a second,” I said. “You’re free to join me, if you’d like.”
“The grill is my domain, and the front is yours,” she said. “I’m more than happy to just sit here and wait for you.”
“See you soon, then.”
After I made my deposit, I was surprised when I turned around and saw Harriet Parton standing a few people behind me. Annie had drifted into the bank, and she was signaling her presence to me, in case I’d missed it. “Hello,” I said to her, pausing and trying to be as friendly as I could be, knowing that she had a one-in-three chance of being a multiple murderer. “I’d hoped to see you at the Iron today.”
“I was tied up with something else,” she said, averting her eyes.
No one else was paying any attention to us. “Did it have anything to do with Albert Yeats?”
Harriet suddenly looked all around us. “I don’t care to discuss that with you, Pat.”
“In here?” I asked her. “That’s fine. I understand.”
Her shoulders eased a little, but the moment I continued, they bunched right back up again. “We can have this conversation just as easily out in the parking lot.”
Harriet frowned at me, started to turn to leave, and that’s when she must have spotted Annie. “Patrick Marsh, are the two of you ganging up on me?”
“Can’t a twin brother and sister go to the bank together without someone being suspicious of their motivations?”
“How do I know that you didn’t follow me here?” Harriet asked me harshly.
“I got here first, remember? Whether you like it or not, we’re having this conversation, Harriet.”
She must have seen the futility in resisting. “Oh, very well. Go outside, and I’ll meet you there.”
“Why don’t I hang back and wait for you inside?” I wouldn’t put it past her to try to sneak out the side door just to avoid us, so I wasn’t about to make that mistake.
“Do as you wish,” she said curtly, and then she proceeded to ignore both me and my twin sister.
“What did she say?” Annie asked me softly when I joined her.
“She’ll talk, but it’s going to be under protest.”
“Why should she be any different from anyone else? This isn’t going to interfere with your other plans, is it?”
“No, it shouldn’t,” I said. “I’ve changed my mind. We’ll do my thing after we talk to our suspects. After all, it’s probably nothing more than a wild-goose chase.”
“You know me,” Annie replied. “I love chasing wild geese. Here she comes.”
Harriet walked toward us as though she were walking to her execution. I expected her to brush past us, but instead, she stopped and said, “Let’s get this over with. Follow me.”
Annie and I did as we were told and followed her out into the parking lot then over to her car. Harriet had her keys out, but I didn’t want her getting away before we could talk, so I stepped quickly ahead of her and leaned against her door. It might not have been the most gallant thing I’d ever done in my life, but it was necessary, and if it turned out that Harriet was innocent of double murder, I’d be sure to apologize to her later.
“Well? What is it?” she asked us harshly.
“We’d like to know more about your relationships with Mitchell Wells and Albert Yeats,” I said.
“Frankly, neither inquiry is any of your business.”
“Do you honestly think that you can just refuse to answer our questions?” I asked her. She could do exactly that, and what was more, she knew it. After all, Kathleen had the power to demand answers. We didn’t.
“That is precisely what I plan to do,” she said grimly. “Now if you’ll both excuse me, I have more errands to run.”
Annie looked at me with a puzzled expression that asked, “What do we do now?” but I had something I’d been holding in reserve. “I’m curious about something. Are you planning on running for reelection this year?” I asked her.
“Why, are you going to run against me? Be my guest.”
“No, I’m no politician, but it might hurt your support if Annie and I plaster the Iron with posters for your opponent, whoever that might turn out to be. Sadly, I can envision a scenario where there’d be no room for any of your literature or campaign posters anywhere. You know as well as we do that without the Iron, it’s going to be twice as hard to get elected, even if you are the incumbent.”
“Are you threatening me, Patrick?” At that instant, I could see how this woman might turn into a killer.
“Actually, we both are,” Annie said firmly.
“That’s blackmail,” she hissed.
“Call it what you will,” I said. “But our statement stands.”
“I never dreamed that you could play so dirty,” Harriet said.
“When it comes to solving a murder, or even two, you should know that there’s not much that I wouldn’t do.”
Harriet didn’t speak for a moment, and when she finally did, I could swear that I caught a hint of approval in her voice. “Okay. I give in. Whether you’re bluffing or not,
I’m not willing to take the chance. Let’s get something straight first. If I agree to answer your questions, you’ll give me as much right as my opponent to campaign in the Iron. Is that correct?”
“It is,” I said.
She wasn’t satisfied with my response alone. Harriet turned to Annie with a look of expectation.
“I agree as well,” Annie said.
“Then we can talk but not here.” She looked around, and I did as well. There were a few folks watching us openly, and a few more trying to be sly about it.
“Where do you suggest?”
“Not the Iron,” she said. “That’s your home turf. How about the park?”
That aligned with my other plans, so I agreed. “Fine. Does Annie have to ride over there with you to make sure you find your way?”
“No, we’ve made our deal, and I’ll stand by it as long as you do. I’ll see you there.”
I stepped aside and let her get into her car, while Annie joined me at mine.
“Was that wise?” my twin sister asked me as we got in, and I followed Harriet to the park.
“You heard her. What could we do, kidnap her? She might be a killer, but I think she’ll keep her word.”
“Why should she?”
“Because she realizes that without being able to campaign at the Iron, she’s dead in the water. Do you have any other questions for her besides the bombshell I just asked her?”
Annie shook her head. “That’s the gist of it, isn’t it? Short of an actual confession, discovering her true relationships with both men is the most we can hope to uncover.”
“Fine, but if you think of something else, feel free to jump right in.”
Annie grinned at me. “Hi, I’m Annie. We have met before, haven’t we?”
It was a ridiculous way of reminding me that she’d very well do what she pleased, usually whether I liked it or not. “Point taken.” I looked up and saw that Harriet was doing exactly as she’d promised. She pulled into the parking lot of the park, and I slid into the space right beside her.