We Wish You a Merry Murder

by Valerie Wolzien

  “Good point,” Susan said, staring out the window at a plastic Santa about to topple off the roof of a large Tudor house onto a bright red BMW sitting in the drive.

  “So how did Rebecca come to be known as Evan’s wife-to-be? I remember hearing that he and Kelly were getting a divorce, but that’s all.”

  “It all happened while you and Jerry were in Florence last spring,” Susan said. “A lot of people knew that there was going to be a divorce, and Evan had moved out of the house, and Kelly had gone home to her mother; then all of a sudden, there was demolition on the property behind the Knowlsons’ house.”

  “You mean tearing down the house that was there before?”

  “Yes. I don’t know what everyone else thought, but I assumed that he and Kelly had sold off the land. Who would ever have thought that Evan planned to live behind his ex-wife?”

  “No one. It still strikes me as bizarre. But when did he announce his impending marriage? I remember people talking about it when we returned from our vacation, but I don’t know how it came about.”

  “He gave a party for her. It wasn’t a large party. It was in the hotel suite he had moved into—in the city. Jed and I were invited, and the Stevensons, and the St. Johns, and one or two other couples. And Rebecca was there. I don’t know how he worked it with everyone else, but he told me as I came in the door. I was late. There had been an accident on the Merritt and I was the last to arrive; Jed had gone straight from work. Anyway, I walked in the door and Evan hurried over to me, handed me a glass of champagne, and suggested I congratulate him on his forthcoming marriage to Rebecca.”

  “So you did.”

  “What else could I do? Actually I think I stood still with my mouth hanging open for a minute or two before I remembered my manners. And then Rebecca came over and said hello to me—and I asked them where they would be living after their marriage. That’s when Evan explained that he was building the new house right behind Kelly. Although he just referred to it as the property he owned in town, not the location.”

  “It must have been an interesting party.”

  “That’s one way of putting it. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was so startled that I didn’t relax until the drive home. As you can imagine, Jed and I didn’t talk about anything else.”

  “And the divorce went through quickly, didn’t it?”

  “I guess so, looking back. But it’s always easier when there aren’t any children.”

  “And property?” Kathleen asked

  “Well, there have been a lot of rumors that Evan paid through the nose for that divorce, but I have no idea of the truth of them. Kelly always says that he provided for her well, but, then again, she never says anything against Evan.”

  “We ought to see if Kelly will be a little more specific with us; she’ll have to be with her lawyer. Time to go see Rebecca?”

  “Definitely.” Susan sat back and looked out the window. “There really are a lot of interesting decorations this year. Look at the huge wreaths they hung on all their windows.” She pointed to the large modern house they were passing. “And have you seen the models of three deer that are in front of the home around the corner? I don’t know if they’re visible during the day. It’s the house right next to Evan— Kathleen! Look! He’s not dead! He’s standing there next to Rebecca right in the middle of their lawn!”

  NINETEEN

  “Susan, it’s …” Kathleen parked the car at the top of the driveway and looked back toward the middle of the lawn.

  “Oh, no!” Susan was halfway out the door before she recognized them. “I don’t believe it. They’re cutouts of some kind. Photographs.”

  “I guess they’re supposed to be decorations.” Kathleen got out, and together they walked over to examine the life-size photographic cutouts of Evan and Rebecca standing in the middle of the front lawn.

  “We had them made last fall. Evan thought they would make an interesting greeting for the holidays.” Rebecca appeared in her open doorway. She joined the women who were now examining the figures. “They’re a little bit larger than life. Evan thought that was important, as they were to be seen from such a distance. What do you think?”

  Susan looked up at Evan Knowlson, towering over her head. “They’re covered with some sort of plastic coating, aren’t they?”

  “Completely waterproof,” Rebecca assured her, studying the image of herself. “I think I should have worn more eyeliner. From the street, it looks like I’m squinting.”

  “They’re so unusual. How did you ever get the idea?” Kathleen asked.

  “Evan thought of it. He wanted something different for this house and for our first Christmas together. Look, why don’t we go inside? Even with this coat, I’m cold. I just made coffee, if you want some.”

  “I’d love it.”

  “Me, too,” Susan agreed. “Rebecca,” she started as they made their way to the house, “were these here for your party?”

  “Yes, but the lighting wasn’t working so no one saw them, I’m afraid. The electrician got all that fixed and they’re lit up at night now. They seem to be making quite an impression; I’ve had a lot of people call about them.”

  Susan, whose heart was still slamming against the walls of her chest, wondered if anyone else could possibly be as shocked at seeing Evan in the middle of his yard, seemingly alive and smiling, when her last image of him had been dominated by the hole in his head. Anyone who had seen Evan dead would feel the same way. Maybe …

  “Who called?” she asked. After all, the murderer would be more surprised than she had been.

  “Almost all the neighbors. I think some of them were a little startled the first night the illumination was working. Why don’t we have our coffee in the kitchen?” she suggested.

  “Fine. Who else?” Susan asked, dropping her coat across the banister of the large open stairway in the living room.

  “Who else? A lot of people. Why are you asking?”

  Rebecca sounded irritated, so Susan dropped the subject. “Just interested. Maybe you’ll be copied all over town, and next year we’ll see the Stevensons in front of their house, and Jerry and Kathleen in front of theirs—”

  “There certainly are a lot of interesting decorations in town,” Kathleen interrupted. “Jerry and I just hung a wreath on the front door. I feel as if we’re not quite keeping up the town’s image.” She hoped that Susan hadn’t put Rebecca off by her talk about the figures on the lawn.

  Rebecca retrieved handmade ceramic mugs from the cherry cupboard above her sink, took the Melitta coffee maker off the stove, placed it on a heavy mat woven from exotic weeds, and poured, filling the three mugs. “I’ll just get the cream and sugar.”

  As both women protested their need for such embellishments, Rebecca sat down on a chair and sipped the steaming brew. “You came here to talk about Evan’s disappearance, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. We were worried and wanted to see if we could help out in any way,” Susan said.

  “Well, I don’t know what you can do, Susan. But I’m glad to see Kathleen. I’ve been thinking there was something unusual about his disappearance and I was considering calling her.”

  Susan, distracted by the discovery that there were tiny goldfish embossed inside her mug, didn’t answer, and Kathleen stepped into the breach.

  “How can I help you?”

  “I was hoping that I could hire you to find Evan.”

  “Hire …” Kathleen resisted looking at Susan to see how she was taking this surprise.

  “What a good idea,” Susan said immediately, giving up trying to figure out the mind of someone who would buy mugs decorated in such a strange manner. “Kathleen had a lot of experience looking for lost people when she was on the police force.”

  “I …”

  “In fact, she was thinking about offering you her services.”

  “Oh? I wondered why you were here,” Rebecca said as Kathleen glared at Susan. “Does that mean you’ll take my case?” She
got up to put the coffeepot back on the stove. “I don’t know how you arrange these things—contracts, payments. Do you get a daily fee for your work plus expenses, or … ?”

  “We don’t have to worry about that now,” Kathleen assured her. “I’d be happy to help you find—with your problem. You don’t have to hire me officially.”

  “No, I want everything to be on a professional basis. Knowlson Enterprises will pay you to find Evan. Just draw up the contracts and I’ll sign them. I can give you a check now or …”

  “Later will be fine,” Kathleen said. She turned to her friend. “Maybe Susan had better leave now …”

  “There’s no reason for that. She’s been involved in Evan’s disappearance from the beginning. She may as well stay involved.”

  “But—”

  “Really, Kathleen, it’s okay. Susan can stay.”

  Since everything was working out as she wanted, Susan decided to shut up and drink her coffee.

  “Well then, I’m afraid I have to start by asking you a lot of questions.”

  “Go ahead. Unless you want something to eat. There’s food left over from the party—and we got a large package of cakes from someplace in Oregon in the mail yesterday. A gift, of course, from one of the people we do business with. We could open one of them.”

  “Nothing, thank you.” Kathleen echoed Susan’s refusal. “Do you mind if I start?” she asked, taking a notebook from the large leather purse she carried.

  “No, let’s get going.”

  “How did you and Evan meet?”

  Rebecca looked a little startled, but evidently decided that it might be appropriate for Kathleen to ask some background questions, so she answered.

  “I was hired a couple of years ago as a summer replacement when one of his secretaries took an extended honeymoon vacation.”

  “And then he hired you permanently?”

  “She got pregnant and didn’t come back so I stayed. I had trained as a bookkeeper as well as a secretary, so I was a real asset. And, I suppose, Evan and I were already becoming interested in each other.”

  “You knew he was married?” Kathleen asked.

  “I didn’t steal him from Kelly.” Rebecca’s voice had hardened. “I know she’s worked very hard for the image of the wronged woman, but it isn’t true. Evan had lost interest in Kelly long before I met him. She was too domestic—only interested in having the perfect house in the perfect town. Evan was bored with her.”

  Susan looked around at the kitchen of another perfect house, in the same perfect town, and wondered if there was another reason for the dissolution of the marriage. Could Evan really have disliked Kelly for her domesticity? Kelly appeared to think he reveled in it. But she didn’t say anything.

  “Kelly wasn’t even interested in Evan’s business. Evan created the company, and its success is due entirely to him. It’s very important to him. And it became very important to me. I think that you can just be a typist and a bookkeeper, or you can be a real help to your boss. I became something like his personal assistant—keeping the office running while he was out of town making deals, even starting to do some of the research in our smaller projects.”

  “I understand Evan is a venture capitalist,” Kathleen said, remembering to use the present tense.

  “Yes, and a very successful one.”

  “That means that he invests in smaller businesses …”

  “Businesses or parts of businesses that are just beginning,” Rebecca corrected her. “He’s very successful,” she repeated. “Mainly because he’s very good at picking out people who are going to succeed. See, he concentrates on the person, not the idea. Evan says that there are some people who can make anything work, some people who can make a good idea work, and some people who will screw up any deal—no matter how good it is.” She shrugged. “So he only invests in the right people. And he always makes sure that his investment in that person is guaranteed.”

  “Makes sense,” Kathleen commented, wondering if it could be that simple.

  “Evan is the smartest man I’ve ever known.”

  “What a nice way to feel about your husband,” Susan said, thinking how lucky Evan had been—married twice and worshiped by both wives. Had he really been something special? Or did his ability to pick the right people extend into his personal life?

  “I have to ask a personal question here …” Kathleen began.

  “I know. Don’t worry about my feelings. The most important thing is finding Evan.”

  “Good. Then will you tell me how you and Evan got together?” Kathleen asked.

  “Well, we were working very closely over a proposal from a group interested in doing travel programming for cable television. It was Evan’s first investment in the cable industry and he wanted a lot of background material. My first husband was in television news, so I knew something about the field.”

  “That’s Thomas and Travis’s father?”

  “Yes. But our marriage ended almost ten years ago, and we didn’t stay in contact—”

  “You didn’t have joint custody? Or regular visitation periods set up in your divorce settlement?” Kathleen interrupted, hoping that Rebecca would tolerate these questions.

  “Oh, the law said he was to maintain regular contact with the kids but, unless the judge was planning on picking the man up and dumping him on our doorstep, it was never going to happen. That man was too much of a child himself to be interested in raising children.”

  “You speak of him in the past tense,” Susan noted.

  “He’s dead. Fell out of a helicopter over LaGuardia Airport doing a story on the dangers of flying since deregulation. He hadn’t even kept up the payments on his life insurance. We got nothing. If I hadn’t married Evan, I don’t know how we would have made it.”

  “Evan and you told each other about yourselves while you were working on this programming proposal?”

  “Yes, just a few months after we began working together. Then, while on a trip to Detroit to check into some work being done there, we fell in love.”

  Sounded like the same old sleazy story to Susan, but the people involved always thought of it as something else. And maybe, for them at least, it was.

  “When did he decide to leave Kelly?” Kathleen asked.

  “Right away. We were in love, and he said he would get a divorce as quickly as possible.”

  “He thought Kelly would agree to that?” Susan asked.

  Rebecca paused. “Evan must have known that Kelly wouldn’t let him go easily. That woman is a possessive monster. But Evan always told me that she would agree in the end, and she did.” Rebecca smiled. Possibly satisfied that her perfect husband had been right again.

  “Do you know anything about the divorce settlement?” Kathleen asked. “I heard some gossip about a large insurance policy.”

  “Then you heard right. Kelly is being supported in the style to which she became accustomed during her marriage to Evan—her lawyer saw to that all right—and Evan and she had a very nice life together. Not only that but, as a guarantee that this life-style will continue whether or not Evan is alive, he is forced to make massive quarterly payments on a two-million-dollar life insurance policy. With Kelly as beneficiary. It’s extortion, that’s what it is!”

  But it also meant that Kelly benefitted more from his death than anyone else.

  “You stayed involved in his business after your marriage, didn’t you?” Kathleen asked.

  “Yes. In fact, Evan trusted me so much that he made me a partner. Something he would never have done with Kelly. She had no head for business.” Rebecca smirked.

  “Am I right that a lot of people would like him to invest in their businesses and he has to pick and choose?”

  “Yes. He’s small, but very well known.”

  “Is it possible that he’s made some enemies along the way? Most people who have power over the lives of others do,” she added, perhaps to soften the question.

  “Probably. But you’re not goi
ng to be able to connect this crime with anyone but Kelly, no matter how hard you try,” Rebecca insisted.

  “I have to check into everything—just in case it turns out that Kelly is telling the truth …”

  “And that he’s dead,” Rebecca ended. “If he is, she murdered him.”

  TWENTY

  Susan was beginning to wonder if there was some sort of immutable rule that she couldn’t leave the house unless she went shopping, that she couldn’t return without her arms full of packages.

  “You promised me!”

  “I don’t remember promising anything, Chrissy.” Susan put down the heavy brown paper bag sporting printed greetings of the season from a national grocery store chain.

  “You did. Last weekend at breakfast. You said you would drive me out to the mall so I could shop for Seth’s Christmas present.”

  “That was before your grandmother arrived early, Chrissy. Besides, you went shopping with your grandmother yesterday …”

  “That was for my presents to you and Dad,” her daughter explained, a smile on her face, guessing that she was close to winning this battle.

  “There are a few more bags of groceries in the car. Bring them in and give me a chance to unpack and we can leave. Unless—” Susan raised her voice“—unless your grandmother has something she wants to do.”

  “Grandma is out with Dr. Barr—and she wasn’t planning to be home for dinner. Don’t you remember?” her daughter called over her shoulder on the way to the garage.

  Susan stared at the box of imported pasta in her hand. “Maybe we could stop at the library,” she said, remembering the book Kathleen had told her about earlier. “Where’s your brother?” she called.

  “He had chorus practice. The school concert is tomorrow night. You didn’t forget that, too, did you?”

  She had, but she certainly wasn’t going to admit it. “Of course not. We’ll have to remind your grandmother. She won’t want to miss it.” Susan smiled to herself. How could a grandmother refuse to go see her grandson’s junior high Christmas concert? She remembered last year when the trumpet section had been so off-key that most of the audience (parents of the young musicians included) had spent the evening stifling wails of laughter, and friends spent the next day comparing who had the sorest diaphragm muscles. She smiled again as the phone rang.