We Wish You a Merry Murder

by Valerie Wolzien

  “Maybe you’re doing too much. Roast goose, plum pudding, eggnog …”

  “Spinach tarts, salmon-and-caviar spread, chicken-pistachio pâté, chicken liver pâté, etc., etc.” She paused and waved her arms around the room. “Not a sign of goose or plum pudding. This isn’t for Christmas Day.”

  “Are you having goose for Christmas Day?” Kathleen asked, thinking about the turkey sitting in her freezer.

  “Yes. And plum pudding. Why don’t you and Jerry come eat with us? And your mother, of course. We’d love to have you.”

  “And we would love to come. So what can I do to speed up this process? Because I think you’re right. When can we find Rebecca?”

  “Help me stuff these crescents and we’ll go right over to her house.”

  “I could call and let her know that we’re coming,” Kathleen suggested. “She’s probably pretty busy. Or maybe not. Maybe she stopped doing all the Christmastime things that we all do when Evan disappeared.”

  “Or maybe she’s going ahead and doing them to make everyone think that everything is normal for her—that she’s not guilty of murder,” Susan said, fingers flying as she worked on the appetizers.

  “The wife is always suspect,” Kathleen muttered to herself, grabbing the pad of paper that hung on the wall near the phone. “Where’s a pen?”

  “That drawer.” Susan pointed. “I thought you were going to help me with these.”

  “In a minute.” Kathleen had found a pencil and was writing furiously. In a few minutes she looked up. “Nine suspects. There were nine people who could have killed Evan that night. If you leave out the caterers.”

  “And we probably can—they do half the functions in town; they wouldn’t be that popular if they killed their employers.”

  Kathleen looked startled.

  “I was just kidding,” Susan explained. “But we probably can eliminate them as long as there’s no personal connection between one of them and Evan.”

  “We should check into that, though.” Kathleen added a note to the paper.

  “So who are the nine?”

  “Rebecca, Kelly, Thomas and Travis, Barbara and Jeffrey St. John, Elizabeth and Derek Stevenson, and Dr. Barr.” Kathleen read the list she had made aloud.

  “Dr. Barr? Did he have a connection with Evan?”

  “Not that I know of, but when you think about it, we really don’t know very much about Dr. Bobby Barr.”

  “That’s what Jed was saying this morning,” Susan mused.

  “There’s a book though—a physicians’ directory or something similar—that we can start by looking him up in. The library probably has a copy of it.”

  “And how do we know that the other eight are the only other suspects?” Susan asked.

  “Because no one else could get in and out of the security system in that house. I know. I helped design it. It’s run through the computer in that media room of Evan’s. It was turned off when guests were expected and turned back on when everyone had arrived. After that it recorded everyone coming and going. And I don’t think anyone did. But, of course, we can check that out.”

  “The computer system?” Susan mused. “Rebecca was sitting at the console later in the evening. Could she have been turning it off?”

  “Or on. Or checking the records of comings and goings. We’ll have to look into that.” Another note.

  “Are you putting in a lot of security systems like that? Computerized and everything?” Susan asked, beginning to put the pastry in plastic bags.

  “Nope. His was the first. And last, I suspect. It’s very expensive and requires a lot of discipline on the part of the owner—making sure it’s turned on and off at the right times and things like that. It’s much easier to just wire up a place and then hire a security company to check things out whenever the wire is tripped.”

  “So why did Evan go to all that trouble and expense? Did he have a lot more to lose than most people?”

  “I don’t know. The house is new, of course, and very expensive to build, but I don’t know that he was protecting anything in particular in it. But that’s true of a lot of security jobs I do. Unless the person who hires me wants to protect something in particular—like I once wired every painting in a house and, even more unusual, I once put a very expensive system into a garage and ignored the house, those people collected antique Porsches—I just put in a whole house system without knowing what needs protecting in particular.”

  “He didn’t say anything about why he was doing it?”

  “No. To tell the truth, I think he’s—was—a technology junkie. What I put in was the most advanced system of its kind. I think he appreciated that for its own sake.”

  “He moved from the perfect country Cape to the perfect architectural modern with ease. I think what mattered was not what it was, but that it was perfect. It makes sense that he would want the most up-to-date system. The same way he insisted on real beeswax candles when he lived with Kelly.”

  “But you know what I keep wondering,” Kathleen said, gathering up her paper and pen and putting them both in her purse.

  “What?”

  “If Rebecca was as anxious to work and create the perfect life-style as everyone says that Kelly did for all those years.”

  “Good question. Can you think of any excuse to appear at Rebecca’s front door and start asking questions?” Susan took off her apron and pulled an elastic band from her hair. Her ponytail fell loose. “Just let me comb this out and get my coat.”

  “Fine. I’ll go say hello to Jed’s mother.”

  “Claire … I forgot. I can’t just leave her alone all day!”

  “You appear to think I have no inner resources, Susan.” Claire Henshaw appeared in the doorway. She was dressed in a Chanel-style suit and very high heels. “Good morning, Kathleen. I was just going to tell my daughter-in-law that I wouldn’t be home for dinner tonight. Bob is taking me into New York City for the day. We’ll be stopping at an inn he knows near here for dinner this evening. How is your mother, Kathleen?”

  “Just fine, thank you. She’s visiting some cousins that live in Rhode Island today. In fact, I’m glad I ran into you. My mother is going to cook our traditional family dinner Christmas Eve. I was hoping you and Dr. Barr would come. Susan’s already been invited, of course.”

  “What a good idea. I’ll have to check with Bobby, but I think you can depend on us being there. If Jed and Susan don’t have any other plans.”

  “No, and it sounds wonderful.” Susan waved her hand for quiet. “What is that noise?”

  “Just the limo that Bobby hired scraping its trunk at the bottom of your driveway. I’ll get going. Don’t wait up for me.”

  “Have a good time,” Susan called out to Claire’s back as she hurried out the door. “Everything’s in the refrigerator. Let’s get out of here, too.”

  “Fine. Why don’t I drive so you can comb your hair in the car?”

  “Okay.”

  They hurried out the front door just as there was a repeat of the limo’s scraping bottom. Kathleen chuckled and hurried on, but Susan stopped in the middle of an unnoticed wave to Jed’s mother.

  “Kath … ?”

  “Like it? It’s an early Christmas present from Jerry.”

  “I love it. It’s fabulous.”

  “Once, back when I first met Jerry, I told him that this had been my dream car ever since I was a kid. And he remembered.” She sighed happily and opened the door of a restored white Jaguar XKE. “Isn’t it beautiful? The upholstery was just redone.”

  “Hmm.” Susan got in and sank down into the soft leather seat. “Smells like one of those expensive leather shops in Florence.

  “Why the early present?” she asked as Kathleen started the engine.

  “There was some sort of mix-up in the delivery schedule and I took the phone call from the delivery company. Jerry said, since I knew about it, I might as well drive it.”

  “What are you getting Jerry?”

  “Don
’t ask. I still have no idea. Absolutely none.” Kathleen shifted quickly and ground the gears. “Damn. I wake up in the middle of the night trying to think of the perfect gift, but so far, nothing.”

  “Well, there are a few days left. You’ll think of something.”

  “I hope so— Hey! Wasn’t that Thomas and Travis going in the opposite direction? In that black Jeep?”

  “It certainly looked like them. I wonder why they’re not in school.”

  “They go to Hancock High?” Kathleen asked.

  “Yes. They’re seniors, I think.”

  “Where is their father?” Kathleen asked, turning the corner onto Rebecca’s street.

  “Ev— Oh, you mean their real father. I’m not sure. In fact, I don’t know very much about Rebecca before she married Evan.”

  “She caused the divorce?”

  “Who knows what causes a divorce?” Susan answered with a question. “All I know is that she was Evan’s secretary before the divorce … and his wife almost immediately afterward.”

  “Does she still work in his office?”

  “Yes, but she let everyone know that Evan has a new secretary. She’s now his partner in the business.”

  “What precisely is his business?”

  “I was afraid you were going to ask me that,” Susan said. “Listen, drive around the block and I’ll tell you what little I know.”

  EIGHTEEN

  “I don’t know all that much—although, of course, I’ve heard some rumors and some gossip. You know how it is.”

  Kathleen did. A quick comment in the checkout line at the grocery store, someone whispering about a neighbor’s behavior at a party the weekend before during a lull in the PTA meeting, a joke or two in the locker room at the club before the weekly handball game. There was usually a bit of truth around somewhere. “So tell me.”

  “Well, the first time I heard about Rebecca was three years ago. Around Christmas, in fact. I ran into Kelly at Bergdorf’s, she was looking for a present for Evan’s secretary.”

  “And that was Rebecca.”

  “Yes. I don’t think she had been working for him very long at that point because Kelly said she didn’t know her very well; we talked about how hard it was to buy a gift for someone you don’t know—that type of thing.”

  Kathleen, driving carefully around an icy corner, nodded her head. She had heard a similar conversation recently.

  “But she also said that it had to be a really nice gift—that Evan really liked this new secretary and wanted to keep her. The whole thing is a little ironic, thinking about it now.”

  “You got the feeling that the relationship was more than professional even then?” Kathleen asked.

  “No, nothing like that.”

  “Why not? An affair with your secretary is pretty cliche.”

  “For a lot of reasons. In the first place, Kelly and Evan seemed so together. They looked like the ideal suburban couple: working together on their house until it was perfect, giving parties, playing on mixed-doubles teams in both tennis and paddleball, doing local charity work …”

  “Like what?”

  “Let me think. Kelly ran two of the auctions that the volunteer group at the library held when they were raising money for the computer system, and she worked hard with one of the groups from their church to organize a shelter for the homeless somewhere near Stamford. She also was very involved in the replanting of the parks the year that the hurricane hit and the stream overflowed downtown. And I think she—”

  “You’re telling me that Kelly did a lot of volunteer work, not Evan.”

  “Well, Evan always went to the benefits and everything …” Susan paused, then laughed. “I guess you’re right. It’s the wives that do that type of thing in Hancock. We have the time, I guess.”

  “So Kelly was the family volunteer.”

  “Yes. But Evan was very busy at his work. He owns his own business, you know.”

  “I thought he was a stockbroker.”

  “No, he’s a venture capitalist.”

  “You’re into something I don’t know very much about,” Kathleen admitted.

  “Neither do I. But I’m not finished telling you about Rebecca.”

  “I’ll drive through the park.”

  “Fine. Let me think. The first time I met her was the spring after that.”

  “After you heard about her in the city?”

  “Yes. It was at a party, and Evan asked me about getting Thomas and Travis jobs for the summer.” She remembered the last conversation she’d had with Evan and wondered if he thought she ran an employment service. Kathleen must have been thinking the same thing.

  “Why you?”

  “I had been on the committee down at the club that picked kids to help out with the pool and the grounds the year before that. You know the summer hiring that we do. Well, I didn’t have anything to do with it that year, but I told him who did.”

  “And so Thomas and Travis worked at the Hancock Field Club that summer.”

  “No, I don’t even know if they applied, but I’m sure they didn’t get jobs there; I would remember seeing them around. I didn’t meet them until Evan announced his engagement to Rebecca and that was later, of course. I wouldn’t even remember that it was Thomas and Travis he’d been talking about except that he’d explained that they were the sons of his secretary, and she was divorced, and he wanted to do something for her. I remember meeting Kelly in New York a few days later and asking her about it.”

  “What did she say?”

  “I think she said something about the two boys being a problem, but that may be something I heard later. She didn’t seem surprised that Evan was looking for jobs for the boys—at least I don’t remember anything like that. So, if the relationship had become personal, she probably didn’t suspect it at that point.”

  “And that was it until after the divorce.”

  “No, not at all. Rebecca moved to Hancock a few months after that.”

  “She did? I didn’t know anything about that.”

  “Yes, she rented that little cottage over near Baxter’s Castle.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “You wouldn’t. It’s an estate right on the edge of town. It was built before the turn of the century by a man who made his money in mustache wax, of all things, and it’s gigantic. Something like forty rooms. A real white elephant. The house had been empty for years. There was a rumor that a school was going to buy it, but the residents over there got up in arms and stopped that from happening. Recently there’s been some talk of turning it into expensive condominiums—something like that might go through. I know that it’s been empty and uncared for for a dozen years or so and there are a lot of people who don’t like seeing a building like that deteriorate—especially if they live nearby.”

  “But Rebecca and her boys lived on the property for a while?”

  “Yes. There’s a coach house built right next to the main gate and they lived there. That building has always been occupied—at least as long as I’ve known anything about it. In fact, there’s a young couple living there now. They just joined the club a few months ago. They’ll probably be at the club Christmas party.”

  “You’ve met them?”

  “Just in passing. I’m on the membership committee, but I missed the meeting where they were considered. Chad had cracked a bone in his leg playing soccer that day, and I was still in the emergency room.”

  “You’re going to the party, though?”

  “Yes. We can look them up, if you want.”

  “Great. Go on.”

  “There isn’t too much more. I met Rebecca once or twice at Kelly’s house. The first time was at a barbecue in their backyard. It was a memorable night. The caterer set up a long fire and was cooking a dozen or so suckling piglets over it when the contraption that was holding the pork broke and everything fell into the flames.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “Yes. And what’s interesting is that Rebecca got right
in there and helped salvage the party. Huge orders of cold cuts and salads were sent from two delis and Rebecca took Kelly’s station wagon and picked up emergency supplies.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

  “Just that she acted more like a host than a guest. Most of us just kidded around and had another beer, but Rebecca helped solve the problem.”

  “You think she had gotten close to Evan by then?”

  “Not necessarily. But she wasn’t just another guest. Maybe that doesn’t say anything. In fact, maybe it just means that she was the only person who was an employee and could be called on to solve a problem.”

  “And Travis and Thomas?”

  “They went to boarding school somewhere in Vermont and they weren’t around in the summer, either. Off at camp probably. I don’t remember where they were, actually. I didn’t meet them until they were living with Evan and Rebecca after their marriage. In fact, and this is strange when you think about it, they didn’t even come to the wedding.”

  “That is interesting. What do you know about her first marriage? Or the kids’ real father?”

  “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. To be honest, I hadn’t realized it until you started asking me these questions. There was such a furor in town over Evan leaving Kelly that I didn’t really think very much about Rebecca or her background. Actually an ex-husband probably accounts for how little we see of Thomas and Travis. They’ve probably been spending time with their father.”

  “But you don’t know that for a fact. You’ve never heard them talk about going to visit their father.”

  “No. Strange, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Or maybe not,” Susan contradicted herself. “Have you ever noticed that we don’t really ask all that much about how anyone new got to Hancock and what they did before?”

  “I guess I understand what you’re saying,” Kathleen said after taking a moment to consider the question. “Most people know that I was a cop before marrying Jerry and moving here, but that may be because working on a case brought me to Hancock originally. There really haven’t been all that many questions about my past before coming here, come to think of it. To be honest, I’ve appreciated it. I also doubt if it would have been like that if I hadn’t married into Hancock, so to speak.”