by Nancy Warren
I agreed, and he said, “I’m Tony, by the way.”
Chapter 19
As sad as I was for this betrayed husband, I was delighted to get inside Nora’s house. Bessie was just as delighted to have me there and jumped up on my legs with both her front paws, letting me know that we were now fast friends. I leaned down and ruffled her head, making her long ears dance.
I followed Tony down the corridor that led to the kitchen. It was bare hardwood, and his slippers made a swishing sound as though he didn’t pick his feet up when he walked. I followed, and my running shoes made no sound at all. Bessie was the noisy one, her paws clicking as she scampered beside me.
The kitchen was pretty much what I had expected. Clean and rather boring. I smelled chicken curry and saw the remains of a ready meal in the trash. There was only one meal, so presumably his wife had shared her dinner with Jason.
He put on the kettle and fussed about, getting a sugar pot out of the cupboard and a carton of milk from the fridge.
The newspaper was sitting beside a reclining chair in the den area off the kitchen, facing the TV, and I imagined that’s where this poor man spent his lonely hours.
A large photograph of Nora and him on their wedding day dominated one wall of the den. A younger version of the sad man making tea gazed at his wife in that photograph, and you could see the adoration in his gaze. She, on the other hand, stared straight ahead at the camera as though unaware of her new husband.
There was a sideboard against one wall, and on its surface were more photographs. There was a picture of Nora, Tony, Elizabeth and Jason in the Caribbean. Another of Nora on her own, and then four of them on a skiing holiday. I walked over and studied the photographs. “I understand you’re still going to go ahead with the anniversary cruise.”
He jerked his head up as though we hadn’t heard me correctly. “What?”
“That’s what Nora said. That you’re going ahead with the cruise and turning it into a memorial for Elizabeth. She said you were taking Elizabeth’s ashes to bury her at sea.”
He swore softly under his breath.
“Didn’t you know?”
“Believe me, I’m always the last to know.” The kettle boiled, and he poured hot water into the teapot. “I doubt I’ll go, anyway.” He glanced at me and back down to his task. “Fifth wheel and all that.”
Had I understood him correctly? “Are you suggesting that you would stay home while your wife and Jason went on the cruise by themselves?”
He carried the tray over to the den area and put it down. Bessie got up and sniffed hopefully, and then, realizing there was nothing dog-oriented on that tray, she flopped down and put her head between her paws.
He said, “Even if the four of us had gone, Jason and Nora still would’ve been all by themselves on the cruise.”
I felt his pain so acutely, I could hardly bear it. “How can you stand it? How can you stand to watch the woman you love carry on like that with your friend?”
He sat in his favorite chair. “Help yourself to tea.”
I did. I poured myself a cup of tea and, without even asking, poured him one, too. Poor man. He looked like he could use a cup. “Milk and sugar?”
He nodded. “Thanks. One of each.”
I made up his tea and stirred it and passed it over. Then I settled back with my own cup. I didn’t particularly want tea, but I thought sharing this might lead to him sharing his troubles. I wanted to stretch out this visit and learn more about this peculiar foursome. Tony seemed like he was as eager to talk about his problems as I was to listen.
He sipped his tea and then finally answered my question. “I love Nora so much it’s like a physical ache. I love her enough that I would rather see her happy than be happy myself.”
I thought that was one of the saddest things I’d ever heard.
“It’s not her fault, you see. She can’t help herself. I think she loves Jason the way I love her. So I put up with it. So does Elizabeth.” He winced. “Did Elizabeth. I can’t believe she’s gone.”
He gazed over at the photograph of the four of them. “That was taken in Antigua. Our tenth wedding anniversary. At least when there were four of us, Liz and I had each other. It wasn’t much, but we could commiserate.”
“So Elizabeth knew?”
“Oh yes.”
“Knew that her husband was having an affair with her best friend?”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t use the word affair. They were really more the couple than we were.”
“Why didn’t they ever, um, you know. Divorce you and marry each other?”
“Jason was so…” He hesitated, looking for the right word. “Meshed with Elizabeth’s family. First, he worked in her family business. I think that house they lived in had belonged to her grandparents. He couldn’t leave Elizabeth without leaving his whole livelihood. And Nora doesn’t have any money. So we all put up with it.”
“Including Elizabeth?” Sounded to me like she’d had more choices.
“It’s hard to explain, but they weren’t unhappy. None of us were. We’re all basically nice people, and somehow we found a balance. Now, of course, that balance has shifted. The table only has three legs.”
Tony shifted in his chair as though he’d sat on something sharp. “I imagine, now Jason is free, Nora will divorce me and marry him.”
And then, in front of my horrified gaze, he began to weep.
I wanted to beg him not to cry. But I held my tongue because I sensed he needed the relief. Bessie got up off the floor, padded over and put her chin on his knee. He reached out blindly and patted his faithful dog. “You won’t leave me, will you, old girl?”
She wagged her stubby tail.
I hesitated to intrude any further on his misery, but I was very curious about one thing. Did he know about the million-pound insurance policy?
Pretending to peruse the newspaper headlines, I waited until he’d got himself back under control. He apologized, but I was glad he’d let a little of his unhappiness out.
“Please, don’t apologize. This is such a difficult time.” I sipped more tea and then said, as though I’d just thought of it, “Did Elizabeth have life insurance, do you know?”
He was clearly startled by the question. “Why yes. They both did. So do Nora and I. It’s common sense, isn’t it? It’s bad enough to lose your partner, but if you’ve got all the burden of the mortgage and bills, at least the insurance gives the bereaved partner a bit of breathing room.”
I thought a million pounds would give a person a lot more than breathing room.
Like incentive.
Violet moved into my flat that night. When I got home from my visit to Nora’s husband, my cousin was hauling an alarmingly large suitcase out of her car. I thought she might stay with me for a couple of days, but it looked as though she’d brought every scrap of clothing she owned. What had I done?
My face must have telegraphed my thoughts, for she laughed. “Oh, Lucy. If you could see your face. Don’t worry, I’m not moving in permanently. I’ve brought a few magic supplies with me, and I thought we’d practice. You don’t practice enough. As a more experienced witch, I can guide you.”
Lucky me.
I helped her haul the beast of a suitcase up the stairs, and when we reached the living room, Nyx jumped down from the couch where she’d been sitting grooming herself and nosed around the case. Her tail began to twitch.
No doubt her sensitive familiar’s nose picked up whatever magic ingredients were inside.
“I’m not sure we’re going to have a lot of time to practice magic. I’m more interested in figuring out who killed Elizabeth, to get the pressure off you.”
She rolled her gaze. “Multitasking, Lucy. It’s called multitasking.”
“When people talk about multitasking, they mean throwing on a load of laundry while you’re checking email, or painting your nails while watching TV. I do not think solving a murder and practicing witchcraft counts as multitasking.”
“Then we’ll just have to combine the two. We’ll use our magic powers to help solve this crime.”
I’d never yet found that I could use magic for anything as useful as solving a crime. Still, the sooner we found out who killed Elizabeth, the sooner Violet could go back to her own home. I was a highly motivated sleuth. If magic would help, I was all over the magic.
While she unpacked in the guestroom, I multitasked by putting on the kettle for some chamomile tea while freshening Nyx’s water and putting some fresh tuna in her dish. I was the master of efficiency.
When she came back into the kitchen dressed in bright pink cotton pajamas, she sat down at the kitchen table. I put the mug of chamomile in front of her and pushed the tin of cookies that Gran had baked that morning toward her. She opened it and made a sound like a squeak. “What is this?”
I leaned over and peeked in the tin. I was pretty surprised myself. “I must’ve run out of ginger again.”
We both stared into the tin. Violet said, “Honestly, I thought your grandmother could only make ginger cookies.”
“I guess she has the recipe for peanut butter cookies too.”
She looked doubtful. “I don’t know, Lucy. Things are getting strange around here.”
I knew what she meant, but I was quite partial to peanut butter cookies. I took one and bit into it. It was perfect. Crunchy on the outside, slightly soft on the inside, bursting with peanut flavor.
Vi followed my lead and nodded her approval when she bit into her own cookie.
While we were sitting together, I related my conversation with Nora’s husband. She didn’t interrupt once, possibly because her mouth was constantly full. She seemed to have made her peace with Gran’s wild culinary daring.
I didn’t tell her Tony had cried because it seemed too personal and painful to share, but I did tell her that he now believed his wife would divorce him and marry Jason.
She swallowed, clearing her mouth enough to say, “He may think they’re all very nice people, but with a million quid and his wife out of the way, Jason can now have everything he wants, including Nora.”
I’d been thinking the same thing. “I think it’s time I found another excuse to visit the grieving husband.”
“Lucy? You can’t go there alone. We just decided he probably killed his wife. You start snooping around, and he might kill you.”
I didn’t think he’d get rid of me in the middle of the day in a quiet village like Moreton-Under-Wychwood, but someone had got rid of his wife exactly that way. Violet said, “I’m coming with you.”
I tried to look very bosslike. “And who is going to run Cardinal Woolsey’s?”
She pouted. “That shop takes up a lot of our time.”
I reached for a cookie. “It also pays us both a salary.”
“There is that.” She took one more cookie, put the lid back on the tin and resolutely pushed it toward me. “Keep those away from me.”
I laughed and returned the tin to its usual place on the shelf so I wouldn’t be tempted either.
I didn’t think I had any reason to fear Jason, but I wasn’t going to be foolish. I told Violet that I would ask Rafe to go with me.
“Excellent plan. If Jason Palmer causes you any trouble, Rafe will tear his throat out.”
“And that should help us stay under the radar.”
When I called Rafe the next morning, he said, “Lucy. I’m in the car now. I’m on my way to see you.”
It was seriously creepy the way he so often turned up whenever I was thinking of him or needed him. “Why are you coming here?”
“Silversmith marks. I found something interesting.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him our investigation seemed to be going in a different direction, so I thanked him and asked if he could drive me to Moreton-Under-Wychwood. “I want to talk to Jason Palmer in his home.”
“He’d be at the dealership, surely?”
“No. I called there. There was a message saying they were closed today due to unforeseen circumstances.”
“That’s curious.” He had a meeting later in the day, to assess a collection the Bodleian was thinking about purchasing, but until then he was at my disposal.
I dressed carefully, wanting to appear nonthreatening to a possible murderer, the kind of woman you open the door to. I chose a cheerful floral cotton dress, which I wore with sandals, as the day was once again warm. A blue cardigan that Theodore had knitted me went perfectly with my dress. Being an artist, he’d hand-painted large wooden buttons. Each was a tiny watercolor painting.
I kept my makeup simple and left my long blond hair to dry naturally. It was just easier that way.
I was ready to go when Violet rushed out of the guestroom, grabbed a cup of coffee and an apple out of the fruit bowl and headed down the stairs to the shop just as Rafe arrived. As her shoes hammered their way down the stairs, he shook his head. “That’s quite remarkable, managing to be late for work when she’s sleeping above the shop.”
“Well, at least she’s safe here.”
For now.
Chapter 20
The Range Rover was deliciously cool with the air-conditioning on. Sitting behind the tinted windows, I felt like a celebrity.
As we drove, he said, “Remember the hallmarks you saw on the back of the watch Elizabeth Palmer bought at the white elephant sale?”
“Yes.” It was hard to get too excited about that missing watch with so much evidence stacked against Jason Palmer.
“The stamped symbol DE was that of a watchmaker in Coventry. David Ealing’s watches were unique. He made watches in the late nineteenth century, and every one had a special number in the movement. One of those watches was sold to one Jeremiah Timmins in 1890.”
“Jeremiah Timmins? Was that—”
“Grayson’s father, yes.”
It was indeed interesting but probably irrelevant. I related my conversation with Nora’s husband once more.
The car swerved and nearly went off the road as he turned to stare at me. “Are you completely mad?”
“Mad, like crazy? No. Speaking of crazy, get your eyes back on the road. What did I do?”
“Has it not occurred to you that Tony Betts is also a prime suspect in Elizabeth Palmer’s murder?”
“What? Why?”
“He’s besotted with his wife. He’d do anything for her.” He let the words hang there. “Maybe he killed Elizabeth Palmer so his beloved wife could have the man she really wanted.” His voice remained low, but the level of suppressed fury increased with every word. “And then you turn up on his doorstep asking a lot of nosy questions, all alone. Then, when he invited you into his house, where not a soul knew you were going, you followed him in. You could have been killed!”
Okay, when he put it like that, I could see I hadn’t been very smart. But I was still alive, so that was something.
“But would Tony really kill Elizabeth just to make his wife happy? When that meant helping her leave him?”
He said, “I don’t know. And neither do you.” After a pause, he went on, “But no one had more reason to kill Elizabeth than Jason did. He gets a million pounds and all his troubles go away.”
“Plus, now he’s free to marry Nora Betts.”
He shot me a glance full of disdain. “Murder as an act of love?”
“Yeah. I can’t wait to see what Jason comes up with on Valentine’s Day.”
We drove through the High Street of the sleepy village. The house that had been Elizabeth’s grandparents’ and now, presumably, belonged to Jason was a little outside of town. It was a beautiful Victorian Gothic revival, with gargoyles and turrets. It was surrounded by neglected gardens that looked as though they needed a crew of landscapers to spruce them up. I guessed they hadn’t wanted to waste money on gardening.
Rafe parked across the street, and just as we were about to get out of the car, he put a restraining hand on my forearm. “Wait. What’s our story?”
Oh, right.
I hadn’t got that far. “Let’s go with a version of the truth. I called his car dealership, and it’s closed today. I have a couple of questions about that car. Like whether I can get it in red.” I sighed. “And if he’d like to lend me some of his million pounds so I can buy it.”
I put my hand on the door latch, but once more he stopped me. “I think we’re too late. Look.”
I followed his gaze to a nondescript blue car, just slowing to turn into Jason Palmer’s drive. Behind it followed a squad car. I was very glad that the windows were tinted. We watched as DI Thomas got out of the first car with another man in a similar suit.
Two uniformed officers climbed out of the second car and, after a brief conference on the pavement, the two detectives headed up the path toward the house. One of the uniforms remained by the road, and the other ran around the outside of the house, presumably looking for a back door in case Jason tried to run.
“It seems the police have come to the same conclusion you have.”
I looked at him curiously. “You don’t agree?”
“Oh, he’s clearly the person with the most to gain. I just wonder how someone who was ruthless enough to kill his wife wasn’t ruthless enough to make a go of a car dealership, that’s all.”
“Maybe it wasn’t ruthlessness, but panic, that drove him to kill his wife.”
“Perhaps.”
Rafe and I watched until the two detectives emerged with Jason. The two uniformed cops walked behind, and one of them was carrying a bow and arrow. Jason Palmer wore the stunned look of a man who has just been arrested. I’d have hazarded a guess that it was the first time. Jason didn’t look like a hardened criminal. He looked like a boy caught out in mischief.
Rafe waited until the two police cars had driven away. He looked over at me. “Do you want to take a look inside?”
I felt my forehead crease in puzzlement. “You mean break into that man’s house?”
“Yes.”
“What for? They found his bow and arrow, and they’ve got Jason. What do we want inside their house?”