Murder by Decay

by Suzanne Young

  Pressing her hands over her ears, Edna nodded and led the way into the high-ceilinged foyer, stopping in the middle of the floor. If she were to keep her sanity, the first thing she needed to do was stop the music, or turn it down at the very least. Stairs to the rooms above were directly in front of her, but the music didn’t seem to be coming from the upper story. She spun slowly and noticed Carol doing the same, hands clapped over her ears as well. At the second rotation, Edna gave a slight bow toward an archway to the right of the stairs through which they could see a wall of windows with a view to the backyard. Together, they walked through the opening, glancing right and left as they advanced.

  The room was elegantly furnished with a lived-in feeling of comfort. A high-backed wing chair had been placed only a few feet from French doors that overlooked a manicured lawn and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The view was magnificent and Edna thought the motion of the sea would be as mesmerizing as the flames of a wood fire. Next to the chair, a side table holding a book and a crystal tumbler suggested that Pieter spent a good deal of time sitting where he could enjoy his domain. With the clearing skies, sunshine streaked through scattering clouds, spotlighting the drinking glass and highlighting dregs of a brownish liquid in the bottom which Edna guessed was either whiskey or scotch.

  Briefly, she considered whether Pieter might have had a bit too much to drink the night before and was passed out somewhere in the house. Can he still be unconscious with the music so loud? As she looked for the source of the racket, her attention shifted to a large river-rock fireplace centered along the outside wall. Twin settees had been placed on opposite sides of a low mahogany coffee table in front of the stone hearth, but she saw no speakers. The music seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere.

  Standing beside Edna in the center of the room, Carol shouted, “The player might be in there.” She motioned with an elbow toward an open door at the far end.

  Edna nodded and, with her hands still pressed to her ears, jerked her head toward the French doors. “I’ll see if Pieter’s out back. He may be working in the yard.”

  Carol started for the other room as Edna approached the high-backed chair. Drawing alongside, she stumbled and stopped at the sight of trouser-clad legs, bent at the knees and splayed apart. The thought that he might be passed out struck her anew, and she couldn’t imagine how drunk he must be, not to be roused by the noise level.

  Skirting the table, she saw forearms crossed over his lap and his head tipped back against the chair’s wing. Her first, fleeting thought was still that he must be asleep or unconscious. His mouth was open as if halted in mid-scream, but his eyes were also open and staring wide with surprise at the ceiling. Her next thought was that he’d been frightened to death, until she noticed the bluish-gray cast to his skin.

  At that moment, the music stopped. In the deafening silence, Edna slowly lowered her hands from her ears and clapped them to her mouth as she stifled the sound burbling up from her chest to her throat. She knew about the symptom, although she’d never actually seen it before. Lack of oxygen or “cyanosis,” she recalled the term, caused the ghostly tinge. Heart attack appeared to be the cause of death.

  “Edna, what is it?” Carol’s urgent tone snapped Edna out of her paralysis. Her head snapped up as Carol crossed the room. Words stuck in Edna’s throat, but she didn’t have to speak once Carol came to stand beside her.

  “Oh, gawd,” the young woman gasped and grasped Edna’s arm as she reeled backwards and attempted to steady herself. She was silent for several seconds before she croaked, “What happened?”

  Edna felt paralyzed, unable to say anything. The image of another dead man, sitting in a different sort of chair, stuck in her mind. How could this be happening to her again, in less than a week? Her trance broke as Carol reached for the drinking glass.

  “No. Wait,” Edna commanded, grabbing the young woman’s arm. “Don’t touch anything. We have to phone the police.”

  Carol turned to her, surprise clear in her expression. “You think he was poisoned?”

  Edna shook her head. “I don’t know, but clearly he’s dead and we’re not experts. All I know is that on all the TV shows, they say ‘Don’t touch anything.’ We need to let the police handle this.”

  It may have been the beginnings of shock, but Carol sputtered a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? Television?”

  Flushing at the ridicule, Edna scowled. “Laugh if you want, but take out your phone and call nine-one-one.”

  Carol sobered immediately and did as she was told, moving away from the body and farther into the living room as she did so. Edna followed suit. She needed to distance herself from the body in the chair, and she desperately wanted to get the images of dead men out of her head. She began to look around and headed toward the room where Carol had shut off the music.

  From what Edna could see through the open doorway, the area appeared to be a combination office and library. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the walls. Opposite the door where she stood, a corner desk held a computer monitor. She walked over to take a closer look and was gazing at the desktop when Carol materialized at her side.

  “The emergency operator said the police and an ambulance should be here in a few minutes,” she said, holding up the mobile in her hand.

  “Don’t touch anything,” Edna reminded as the young woman leaned over the computer.

  “Just want to see if it’s on,” she said. “I won’t leave any prints. I promise.”

  Before Edna could stop her, Carol pressed the keyboard’s space bar with the edge of her phone. Instantly, the display came to life and a document appeared on the screen.

  “Seems to be a letter to his lawyer,” Edna said, noting the “LLD” after the name on the heading.

  “Look at the date,” Carol observed. “This was written ten years ago. Early December would have been about six months after he testified in that trial.”

  Edna leaned over the monitor, shoulder to shoulder with Carol, but before she could read beyond the salutation, a shout brought her up straight and spun her around.

  “What are you doing in here?” Vera Baxter stood in the doorway, her face red with rage. “Where’s Pieter?”

  Chapter 15

  Edna realized Vera must have come straight through the living room when she’d spotted them in the den. As Edna and Carol had done previously, Vera didn’t immediately notice Pieter because of the chair’s angle and proximity to the glass doors. When Edna started to cross the room, arms extended and palms up in supplication, Vera stopped her with a glower.

  “Well,” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. “Explain yourselves before I call the police.”

  “It’s not as it seems.” Edna began, then stopped short as Detective Charlie Rogers’ face appeared behind Vera’s left shoulder.

  “Ladies?” he began, then seemed taken by surprise. His eyes widened and his eyebrows rose. “Edna?” he amended.

  “Hello, Charlie,” she said. She didn’t know why she felt like a schoolgirl who’d been caught out in the hallway when she should have been in class. Absurdly, she felt her cheeks burn. She wanted to say more, but her mind had gone completely blank. She couldn’t very well blurt out about finding Pieter, not with Vera standing there. Even if she was scowling and seemed as angry as a swarm of hornets, the woman deserved to be told in a more diplomatic manner. Before Edna could think of what that was, however, Officer Rita Nicholas came into view.

  “Body’s over here, Charlie,” she said not realizing everyone wasn’t privy to the news yet.

  Having remained stubbornly staring at the two women whom she thought to be intruders, Vera now spun to face the police. “Body?” The color literally drained from her face and she took a staggering step backwards, as if she’d been pushed. “Pieter?” The word was hardly more than a whisper but it resounded in the room.

  To Edna, from that point forward, everything seemed to happen in triple time. Moving to take Vera’s arm and put a steadying ha
nd on her shoulder, Charlie motioned Edna to a nearby chair and directed Carol to accompany Rita to the kitchen. He then beckoned to someone out of Edna’s view. When a patrolman appeared, Edna recognized Swen Reynolds, having just seen him at Gordon’s house.

  “Take her statement, would you?” Charlie said to the man in uniform with a jerk of his head in Edna’s direction.

  Apparently satisfied that the witnesses were separated and being questioned, Charlie gently pulled Vera back into the living room. Seconds later, Edna heard a muffled exclamation just as Swen began to speak.

  “Want to tell me what happened here?” His voice was low and softer than Edna expected from such a large man. He was an inch or two over six feet and upwards of two hundred pounds, she estimated.

  Realizing the officer was attempting to distract as well as interview her, Edna felt grateful. Forcing her attention away from the sounds in the other room, she felt herself babbling on about how she and Carol came to be in Pieter Resnik’s house. She told about visiting his dental office and talking to Vera. In order to be certain the officer knew to whom she referred, Edna nodded toward the living room as she mentioned Pieter’s assistant. “When she refused to give out her employer’s address, we decided to go see Gordon Jennings,” Edna explained. “As you know, we struck out there, too, when we learned Gordon was at the station. I finally phoned a friend who was able to give us this address.”

  While Edna chattered aimlessly, her mind was whirling with other thoughts. Had Pieter died of heart failure as the blue-gray pallor of his skin suggested? Why had Vera come to the house? Had she been going to warn Pieter that Edna was looking for him? What was in the old computer letter to his lawyer?

  Forcing her attention back to the present interview, she was deciding whether or not to mention the side trip to the Kailey’s when Rita appeared in the doorway. There must have been a silent communication between the two police officers because the next thing Edna knew, she was being escorted to the foyer where Carol was waiting at the front door. Neither Charlie nor Vera were in the living room when Edna passed through, but two white-coated attendants were bending over the high backed chair. She quickly turned away and followed Carol out of the house and to their car.

  Once buckled into the driver’s seat, Edna started the motor and glanced at the dashboard, surprised to see it was only a few minutes before eleven. She was exhausted and felt as if she’d been in Pieter’s house for hours.

  “What did you tell them?” Carol said as she pulled her seat belt across her body and snapped the metal tongue into place.

  The two women proceeded to compare notes on the drive back to their neighborhood, but came up with no new information except to speculate on Vera’s presence. When their theories shed more confusion than light as to why Vera might have left the office to show up at Pieter’s home, Edna fell silent. Carol, too, seemed to be deep in her own musings until they neared the Osbourne mansion.

  “Oh look. Mary’s Jeep. She must be home. Can we stop and see her?” Carol’s voice interrupted Edna’s thoughts. “I want to know if she’s found Annie’s owners.”

  With all that had been going on, Edna had forgotten about the little terrier. “Mary’ll show up at my house when she sees my car.” Edna continued along the road and turned onto the broken-shell driveway. She was tired and hungry. A hot cup of tea was what she needed at that moment. Noting Carol’s unhappy expression, she added, “Knowing Mary, she’s probably been watching for us. I bet she’ll be walking in the back door before we get our coats off.”

  As predicted, they’d barely had time to greet Benjamin, remove their coats and enter the kitchen when the ginger cat scampered to the mudroom at sounds coming from that direction. The murmurings that followed announced Mary’s arrival.

  “Just tried to phone you,” she grumbled a minute later when she strolled into the room with Benjamin held against her chest. “What’s with your cell? My call went right to voice mail.” Despite her neighbor’s mood, Edna could hear the cat purring halfway across the room even as she filled the kettle at the kitchen sink. “I was about to try Carol’s mobile when I saw you go by.”

  Mary’s comment reminded Edna that she hadn’t yet retrieved the cell phone from her tote to check its charge, as Albert had asked. The thought flicked through her mind before being shoved aside by the more urgent concerns of the morning.

  “Hi, Mary,” Carol said, ignoring the redhead’s complaints as she lifted an eyebrow at Edna who was half turned in her direction. The young woman was obviously impressed at Edna’s clairvoyance.

  “Come in,” Edna said, sending Carol an I-told-you-so wink. “I’m going to make tea and grill some cheese sandwiches. Can your news wait until after lunch?” For the moment, she didn’t even want to know what Mary had found out about Gordon’s arrest and was glad her crime-enthusiast neighbor hadn’t yet brought up the subject. Edna’s exhausted mind was whirling with images of dead men and police. All she wanted to do was have a quiet lunch before jumping back onto the merry-go-round they seemed to be riding.

  “I s’pose,” Mary said as she took a chair opposite Carol at the kitchen table. Despite her glower, she refrained from further comment.

  “Any luck finding Annie’s family?” Carol asked, assuming correctly that this subject, at least, was acceptable before food was on the table.

  Dressed in brown and green camo fatigues, Mary gave Benjamin a final stroke along his back before depositing him on the cushioned chair next to hers. Looking across at Carol, she shook her head but her mood seemed to lighten slightly. “Nothing yet, but I have some other news for you.”

  At the solemn tone of voice, Edna jerked her head from her task to study Mary’s gloomy expression for a moment. With a sigh, she resigned herself to a conversation that none of the women could keep off their minds. “About Gordon?” She hoped it wasn’t bad news. She didn’t think she could handle much more, not right away, but Mary shook her head. “Pieter Resnik,” Edna guessed again, realizing immediately that Mary had already heard about the man’s death. Perhaps it was because she knew Mary well enough by now to understand her neighbor had a direct line to the local grapevine, but the speed with which she learned the latest news still amazed Edna.

  As Mary nodded and even cheered up enough to appear smug, Carol looked wide-eyed and open-mouthed between the two before her gaze settled on Mary. “How do you know? We barely know and we were the ones who found him.”

  Mary nodded again and turned more serious. “I know.”

  If the occasion weren’t so grave, Edna might have laughed at Carol’s astonishment. Instead, she brought tea and sandwiches to the table, sat beside her young neighbor and gazed across the table at the all-knowing Mary. “You seem to know quite a lot about Pieter. What can you tell us about him?”

  Mary shrugged. “Knew his in-laws better.”

  “Who were they?” Carol asked, pouring a cup of tea and passing it across to Mary.

  “Cromwells.”

  “Family friends?” Edna guessed. She’d learned that Pieter’s wife was the one with money and she also knew that Mary’s parents had been among the socially prominent in the area, so the deduction was fairly obvious. Speaking as she absently passed around luncheon plates and napkins, she said, “So you know Pieter through his wife.”

  “That’s right,” Mary said, choosing a half sandwich from the platter in middle of the table. “Isabelle was a lot younger, so mostly I was her babysitter when our families got together. Saw more of her after she married Pieter and lived here year round.”

  “Did he have a bad heart?” Edna asked, wanting to get that question answered and out of the way. The blue-gray color of Pieter’s skin kept popping up in her mind.

  “Not that I ever heard,” Mary said, before taking a sip of tea.

  “You two are way ahead of me.” Carol selected her own sandwich. “Wanna fill me in?”

  Rising, Edna went to the counter to fill a plate with chocolate chip cookies from a large jar shape
d like a teddy bear. While she worked, she listened to Mary’s tale. “Pieter and Isabelle met when he was in his last year at Tuft’s School of Dentistry. She was a graduate student in Fine Arts at Boston University. The Matunuck house was her family’s summer place. Isabelle’s parents deeded it to her when she married Pieter.”

  “Wow,” Carol blurted, “some wedding present.”

  Mary shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Isabelle liked Rhode Island. Her folks preferred their home in the Hampton’s on Long Island.”

  “Both homes near the ocean,” Edna observed as she returned to place the dessert on the table.

  Mary agreed. “The whole family loved the sea. Isabelle’s father owned a couple of boats. He used to sail between the two locations instead of driving. Thought it was safer.”

  “So it was Isabelle who was killed in the hit-and-run,” Edna prompted, more interested in Pieter than his in-laws.

  Mary ate a bite of sandwich before replying. “That’s right. The day after Pieter testified at George Baxter’s trial.”

  “When he identified the body found in some pond around here as Billy Rob Kailey,” Carol clarified.

  “Right again.” Mary reached for her tea cup.

  Edna wrapped her hands around the tea pot and found it had grown cold. “Keep talking,” she said, getting up and going back to the stove to start another kettle of water to boil. “You mentioned before that he changed after that accident. How so?”

  “Well,” Mary hesitated as if gathering her thoughts. “First off, you gotta remember he nearly died himself in the accident. He was in the hospital for weeks. After that, he stayed home for nearly a year. A real recluse. Hired a male attendant to do the cooking and cleaning and anything else around the place that needed doin’. Rumor was that Pieter became so unbearable even his in-laws stopped visiting. Surprised everyone when he started practicing again, but he opened up his own office. Never went back to his old partners. Stopped his charity work. Things like that.”