by Dale Mayer
“Oh, my gosh,” the woman said. “My father called me about you. I’m Jennifer.”
“Hi, Jennifer. I was just trying to find the name of the family members of Reginald Abelman who lived in Kelowna.”
“Well, you know he married Aretha,” Jennifer said, “and they filed for divorce, but the paperwork wasn’t finalized when he overdosed.” Her voice dropped in a mock despairing note. “The poor man, he must have been absolutely lovestruck.”
“I’m sure that was it,” Doreen said. Not. She didn’t believe that theory for a second.
“It’s all so terrible,” she said.
“Do you know what his sister’s name was?”
“I think I have it written down here somewhere,” she said. “Oh, there it is. Lena,” she said. “It’s Lena.”
“Good,” Doreen said. “Did she marry?”
“She did, but then …” her voice trailed off. “You know, I have so many notes here. I keep trying to get organized, but I never quite make it.”
“I can sympathize,” Doreen said. “I’ve just done a massive clean-out of my place.”
“Right. Still, I should have the information here somewhere.”
“I guess the question is whether she’s still married or not. It’s her daughter I’m trying to find.”
“The daughter. Yes, she had a daughter very young in life. I think she had her before she was married. There was a bit of a scandal about it, as I recall.”
“Okay,” Doreen said. “So do you know the name of the daughter?”
“You know what? I’m still looking for those notes.” Her voice was distracted, and Doreen could hear a ton of paperwork being shuffled. She groaned. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Jennifer said. “I’ll have to call you back with it. I’ll make it as soon as I can.”
“That’s fine,” Doreen said. “I guess it’s waited this long, so a little longer won’t matter.”
Jennifer sounded relieved. “I promise I have the information somewhere.”
Undisturbed, Doreen said, “Okay, I look forward to hearing from you,” and she hung up.
Now she had three people she was dealing with. She wrote down some notes, along with Jennifer’s information and what little bit they had come up with and knew the easiest solution would be to talk to Aretha. But she didn’t have her phone number. Looking down at the animals, she took a deep breath, remembering the last time.
“Road trip?” They all started going crazy. She picked up the leash and headed down the walking path toward Aretha’s house. As she got closer, she could see the gates were locked. She pushed the Call button, but nobody answered. She sighed, then ripped off a clean page from her notepad. She addressed her note to Aretha, asking her to Call Doreen, jotting down her number. She tucked it into the mailbox, leaving a little bit of it sticking out, so they would see it.
She slowly headed past the house, determined to get enough of a walk in that she’d be tired by the time she got home. By now she was just boiling over with nervous energy. It was Wednesday, and the week was going by very quickly. All these people had been calling her back, yet she hadn’t gotten any of the answers she wanted and needed. How frustrating.
Still, it was interesting to go back so many years and to hear everybody’s interpretations of what had happened. She turned around to head back when she saw a vehicle pulling up to the driveway, but it was too far ahead for her to call out and get their attention. Somebody did stop and pick up her note from the mailbox. Smiling, she said, “Now call me, please.”
Mugs just looked up at her. Thaddeus leaned against her, as if to give her comfort, compassion, and support. She chuckled. “You guys are great,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you all these months.” As she continued her walk, her phone rang. She halted several houses away and looked at the screen. It was her. “Hi, Aretha,” she said cheerfully.
“Why do you want me to call you?” Aretha asked. There was no panic, nothing in her voice other than curiosity.
“Honestly,” Doreen said, “I’m trying to look into that burglary, and I was wondering if you could tell me your sister-in-law’s name.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It’s just a puzzle piece I don’t have.”
“It was Lena or something,” she said crossly. “I don’t know why any of it matters.”
“Right,” Doreen said. “It was Lena. Though I just realized what I meant to ask you was about Lena’s daughter. What was her name?”
“Oh, I don’t remember,” Aretha said. “She was an unwed mother, you know. I can’t remember the details.”
Doreen stared up at the sky. Was nobody else as curious as she was? “Okay. That’s why I was trying to get a hold of you.”
“It happened such a long time ago,” Aretha said. “There isn’t really anything you can do about it now.”
“No,” Doreen said, but, unable to resist, she added, “Except for the fact that not all the jewels were recovered.”
“I know. I’m pretty sure my husband arranged for the theft, only that blew up too,” she said. “He was trying to collect the insurance, I think, and then also keep a portion of the jewels. I spoke to my second husband about it several times, and that’s what he assumed too.”
“Which would have been tough because he was working for the insurance company that insured your business.”
“Tell me about it,” Aretha said with a groan. “We had a lot of discussions about it, but he wasn’t mad at me.”
“No,” Doreen said. “That wouldn’t have made any sense.”
“No. Not at all.” Aretha went on, “Now, if you’re done with it, I’d like to go in and have a cup of tea.”
“Of course, thank you very much.” Then Doreen hung up.
She walked up the block. As she got closer to Aretha’s house, a woman stepped out of the main gate in front of her. It was Heidi. Uncertain as to how the animals would act, Doreen cast a wary eye at Goliath. She tucked Mugs up closer and smiled gaily at Heidi. “Hi there. How are you doing?”
“Well, I’d be doing a lot better if you’d leave Aretha alone,” she said.
Chapter 27
Wednesday Midafternoon …
“Oh,” Doreen said. “Did she tell you that she just called me?”
“Yes, and about what?” she said, shaking her head. “That all happened so long ago.”
“You’re right,” Doreen said. “But, when you think about it, some things were never solved.”
“I know. I know,” she said. “Something about jewels still missing.”
“Exactly. I’m not sure who would be allowed ownership of them at this point,” Doreen said, “but obviously Aretha could use the money.”
At that, Heidi snorted. “I highly doubt anyone would hand them over to her.”
“Maybe she still has some of them,” Doreen said. “Did you ever think about that?”
“I did, indeed,” Heidi said, laughing. “It was in the back of my mind that maybe she did have the jewels with her. But she’s lived in my house for well over a year, and I can tell you that I’ve never seen any of them. I haven’t seen any sign of her having any wealth beyond her decade-old clothes.”
“Right,” Doreen said, her heart sinking. She groaned. “That would be too much to hope for, wouldn’t it?”
“If she had them, she would have sold them,” Heidi said with conviction.
As they got closer, Mugs growled. Doreen looked down at him and frowned. “Mugs, behave yourself.”
“Sorry about the other night,” Heidi said. “I was a little disgruntled at something else happening in my day. I didn’t mean to be snarky about the animals.”
“You had every right to be,” Doreen said. “Of course you don’t want animals in your garden, and your garden is absolutely beautiful.”
“Maybe,” she said, as she looked around at the property. “This was one of Aretha’s first husband’s favorite properties. He used to spend a lot of time here.” She smiled
a mysterious smile.
“Was it his?” she asked in surprise.
“No,” Heidi said. “It never was. But I know he was here a lot.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
She shook her head. “Not really,” and there was that mysterious smile.
“Does Aretha know that you know something about her ex-husband?”
“I don’t think Aretha is living in this world very much nowadays.” Heidi laughed. “She’s at least twenty years my senior, and it’s hard to see what I could possibly end up like,” she admitted. “Aretha’s memory is definitely going. She’s got joint pain, and her stomach can’t handle a lot of foods now.”
“I guess that’s to be expected to a certain extent,” Doreen said cautiously. “But that’s an interesting point. The stomach upsets could be from too much stress, worrying about her future. Maybe worrying about the jewel theft.” She added the last as a stab in the dark.
“About what?” Heidi asked, looking at her. “That, if she’d had them, she would have sold them?”
“Of course she would have,” Doreen said. “After hearing the story, I thought her first husband Reginald might have had something to do with it all.”
“Why is that?”
“Because, after her parents died and then her husband Reginald died, the court cases fell into disarray.”
“The court cases were all pending, but, after Reginald died, then there was nobody left to take to court,” she said with a laugh. Heidi raised a glance and gave Doreen a superior smile. “You with all your puzzle-solving abilities didn’t consider that? Surely you didn’t believe Aretha and her suicide version, did you? Of course, it makes her feel better to believe he did it out of remorse.”
“I’m trying to get a copy of the death certificate,” Doreen said. “Just to make sure it was suicide.”
“That won’t help,” she said, “because it could say overdose, but that wouldn’t mean he overdosed himself. Now he might have, but who are we to know what really happened?”
“True enough,” Doreen said, but for some reason she felt a little uneasy. And Mugs wasn’t cooperating. Goliath was, however. He sat right at her feet. However, Heidi kept smiling, but the smile was a little bit disconcerting too. She looked down at Goliath. “I should get the animals home.”
“You do that,” Heidi said with another unsettling smile. “And, if you find any jewels, let me know.”
“Hah! Wouldn’t that be nice?” she said.
“According to the grapevine, you found some.”
At that, Doreen turned and looked at her. “And who told you that?” she asked.
Heidi shrugged. “It’s the local gossip.” Her gaze narrowed. “Did you?”
“If I did,” she said, “I certainly wouldn’t be passing that news around.”
“Of course not,” Heidi said. “You wouldn’t want anybody to break in, would you?”
“I’ve had several break-ins lately,” Doreen said, her nose inching up slightly. “The last thing I’d want is more.” And with a wave of goodbye, she turned and hurried away. She knew in her heart she wouldn’t be dealing with Heidi anymore. This version was the complete opposite of the fun-loving gardener she’d met the first couple times. Feeling like Heidi’s gaze glared into the back of her head, she resisted the urge to turn around and look because she knew instinctively Heidi was watching. When she got home, she phoned Mack.
His voice was distracted. “Now what?”
“It’s Heidi,” she said. “Something’s very off about her,” and Doreen related the conversation.
“That’s not good,” he said. “Don’t you have a safety deposit box someplace where you can keep the gems?”
“No,” Doreen said, “and I highly suspect that’s why your mom never did anything with them either. She didn’t want to get any undue attention because of it.”
“No,” he said. “That makes sense.”
“Did you ever see Reginald’s death certificate?”
“I did,” he said. “He overdosed. His death certificate says accidental overdose.”
“Interesting.”
“Why?
“What kind of poison?” she asked.
“Well, let’s put it this way. It was an overdose. Accidental overdose. A mixture of all kinds of drugs in it. As if he tossed it all into his drink and drank it up.”
“Interesting.”
“You keep saying that,” he said in exasperation. “That doesn’t mean it was murder.”
“What if he didn’t want a divorce, and what if it was murder?” she asked.
“Are you suspecting Aretha?”
“I don’t know what I’m suspecting,” Doreen said with a heavy groan. “This case has got me befuddled.”
“Good,” he said, “now you know how we feel.”
She laughed. “I am a little worried now though, after Heidi’s comment about the rumor saying I have the jewels and someone breaking in.”
“You should be,” he said. “Make sure you set that security system.”
“Right,” she said. “And, if I send you a weird text, take it as a warning sign and come, would you?”
There was silence on the other end. “Are you thinking you’re seriously in danger?” His voice sounded brusque.
“Yeah,” she said. “It feels like something really weird is going on.”
“What? Something really weird is going on and you feeling you’re in danger aren’t the same thing.”
“I know,” she said. However, as soon as she hung up, she put on a cup of tea to make herself feel better.
About an hour later—after she’d vacuumed the house, scrubbed both bathrooms, and done laundry—she realized she was filling her mind by keeping her hands busy, trying to stop thinking about everything going on. When a knock came on her door, she checked the window first. There stood Aretha. She opened her door. “Hi,” Doreen said.
“I was thinking about what you were saying,” Aretha said.
“Do you want to come in and talk?”
Aretha stepped in and looked around. “You don’t have much furniture.”
“No,” Doreen said. “I cleaned it all out, and now I’m slowly building up a few pieces.” She motioned to the two pot chairs. Aretha sat down, her legs tucked under in a ladylike way. Doreen sat down and crossed her legs, the opposite of what her husband would have wanted. “Now,” she said. “What is it you wanted to tell me?”
“Well, the thing is, I couldn’t tell you at the time, but Heidi is my niece. She didn’t want anyone to know because of all the mess in my history.”
Doreen stared at her in shock.
Aretha nodded. “She’s the loveliest woman, and obviously I didn’t want to room with somebody who wasn’t family.”
“Of course,” Doreen said. “I wish you would have told me that originally. Then I wouldn’t have spent days trying to track down the name.”
“It was out of respect for Heidi that I didn’t, as she asked me not to. And, of course, she’s done much better than I ever have,” she said sadly. “I did everything I could to make things better, but I could do only so much.”
Chapter 28
Wednesday Late Afternoon …
“Have you ever seen any of the jewels?” Doreen asked Aretha.
“I saw something I thought were jewels in Reginald’s hand once, but, when I asked, he just laughed and said it was nothing. I always wondered if he’d found some while cleaning up after the break-in and didn’t put them back into the store’s inventory. I didn’t want to believe it, but he was bitter, often saying he’d lost everything. Of course he had. But so had I,” Aretha whispered.
“What about your new husband? Didn’t he want those jewels to combat the insurance claims?”
She lifted her hands. “What would I tell him? It was years later, and I didn’t know what had happened to them for sure, and Reginald was dead. It was all such a nightmare, and I just wanted to forget.”
“You said Reginald left
you a note, saying more jewels were hidden in the city.”
“Yes, but he never told me where.”
“Do you have any idea what kind of a place he would have chosen?”
“Only that he always made bad decisions, so, no matter where it was, it’s probably long gone.”
“Did Heidi know?”
“We’ve never spoken about it,” she said.
Doreen hesitated, not sure if she should tell her. “She told me that she’d never seen you wearing any.”
“Of course not,” Aretha said. “I hate to say it, but I’ve been forced to sell everything. And even now I barely have enough to pay Heidi.”
“But Heidi’s done very well?”
“She’s done very well,” she said. “She once told me that she got a surprise inheritance from her mother.”
“Interesting,” she said.
Aretha looked at her and frowned. “In what way?”
Doreen smiled and shrugged. “An awful lot of dead people are involved in this scenario.”
“True,” Aretha said. “Sometimes I wish I was one of them. Growing old gracefully is one thing. Growing old and broke and graceful is a whole different problem,” she said with half a smile.
“True enough,” Doreen said, understanding more than Aretha knew. “And you trust Heidi, correct?”
Aretha nodded. “Yes. Of course I do. Why?”
“I just wondered if she thought maybe you would leave her the jewels when you passed on.”
“I don’t have anything to leave her,” Aretha said sadly. “Even my second husband didn’t leave me enough to live on. I knew he was lost and still in love with his first wife, but I was looking for companionship, so I took what was offered. But I think I shortchanged myself both times.”
“So how did you end up moving in with Heidi?” Doreen asked.
“She offered,” Aretha said. “She came to me one day, and we were talking. I told her how upset I was about the way my life had worked out. All of it, starting with never having the burglary solved.”
“Did Heidi’s mother suspect her brother?”
Aretha nodded. “Her mother had said something about it to her.” She looked thoughtful. “Everyone with answers is dead.”