Christmas with the Franks

by Leena Clover

  Crystal had a faraway look in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

  “I helped him up, of course. I apologized. He asked if I would have a cup of coffee with him.”

  “And you agreed?” I asked. “Just like that?”

  Crystal shrugged.

  “Normally I wouldn’t, but he was a sweet old man. He was nothing like the lechers I am used to.”

  She leaned toward me.

  “I may be young, but I have a gut instinct. A kind of radar. You can’t help but develop it in my business.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “We went to a diner. I didn’t really want coffee so he bought me breakfast. Before I knew it, he had me spilling my life story.”

  “Did you know who he was?” Stan asked. “Did you recognize him?”

  “I knew he was better off than me,” Crystal stated.

  “Was he surprised when he learned about your profession?” I asked.

  “He didn’t bat an eyelid. He said he had a big house and I was welcome to visit any time.”

  “Did you talk about his family?”

  “He didn’t mention them. At that time, I thought he was a lonely old man.”

  “So you grabbed his offer and decided to come and live here,” Stan summed up.

  “It wasn’t like that,” Crystal denied. “We met in the fall, sometime in September. Teddy and I met a few times after that, always for breakfast, always at the same diner.”

  “Go on.”

  “He invited me for a visit every time. Then they let me go at work. December is not a good month in our trade. Teddy asked me to spend Christmas with him. I didn’t have anywhere to go so I came here.”

  “Were you surprised?”

  “Hello! Have you seen this place?” Crystal exclaimed. “I felt like Cinderella.”

  “And Theodore Frank was your fairy godmother?”

  Crystal smiled shyly.

  I was intrigued. What had old Mr. Frank seen in Crystal? Was she just eye candy for him? Something nice to look at?

  “What have you been doing since you got here?” I asked. “Didn’t you get bored?”

  “There was so much to do! We walked around the grounds in the morning. Teddy taught me chess. I almost beat him once! He took a long nap in the afternoon and I watched cartoons. They have a media room with tons of tapes and a big 50 inch TV.”

  So Crystal had felt like a kid in a candy store.

  “What about the rest of the family?” Stan asked.

  “I didn’t come across them much. Mr. Ted was busy working. Ryan and his band were busy with their music. I sat in on their sessions sometimes. And Mrs. Frank…”

  She hesitated.

  “What about Mrs. Frank?” Stan prompted her.

  “Mrs. Frank and Mr. Noah were busy with other stuff.”

  Stan and I could guess what ‘stuff’ she was talking about.

  “So these people never got together as a family?”

  “They had dinner together,” Crystal said.

  “How did they get along?” Stan asked.

  Crystal shrugged.

  “My parents died when I was young. I grew up in a home. I don’t know what is normal for a family.”

  “Did they fight a lot?” Stan asked. “Old Mr. Frank and Ted Junior?”

  Crystal shook her head.

  “Teddy was very proud of his son. He told me he got all the credit for bringing Frank Foods into the Millennium.”

  “So they didn’t fight like they did last night?”

  “That wasn’t a fight. They were just discussing work stuff.”

  Crystal’s idea of a fight must be very different.

  “Did they have a lot of these discussions?” I asked.

  Crystal looked at me coolly.

  “Noah and Ted fought a lot. And everyone, right from Teddy, Mrs. Frank and Mr. Ted gave Ryan a hard time. They wanted him to start working at the plant. But he just wants to make music.”

  “What did they talk to you about?”

  “Other than Teddy, they all pretty much ignored me. Ryan’s friends made a pass at me once or twice, but I took care of that.”

  Crystal picked up Chorizo and put her on her lap.

  “You miss him too, don’t you, kitty?” she murmured.

  “Where were you when the shot was fired, Miss?” Stan asked.

  “In the living room,” she said right away.

  “Do you remember who else was there around you?”

  Crystal narrowed her eyes and rattled off a few names. Amanda wasn’t on her list but Julie was. We knew Julie had been in the game room with Noah and Ryan so it was hard to say how reliable Crystal’s memory was.

  “Do you suspect anyone?” Stan asked. “Did you notice anyone acting weird yesterday?”

  “Who would want to harm a poor old man?” Crystal shot back. “None of this makes sense.”

  “Was there someone Mr. Frank didn’t get along with? What was his state of mind these last few days?”

  “Teddy was happy Julie was coming home,” Crystal said. “He loved that girl. He wasn’t too happy with Amanda for sending her away.”

  “What about the servants in this house?” Stan asked. “You have been here for the last couple of weeks. Did any of them act suspicious? Did they have any altercation with the old man?”

  “Teddy didn’t interact with them much. Chamberlain was the only one he talked to. And they got along well. Teddy told me he’s been here fifty years.”

  “What about Sophia?” I asked. “He ever talk about her?”

  “Teddy knew he wronged Sophia. He was angry when she walked out on him. But he missed her. Although he had a brief fling with Noah’s mom, Sophia was the only woman he truly loved. And he had never stopped loving her.”

  “You do know they hardly saw each other?” I asked. “They had been estranged for years.”

  Crystal had a dreamy look in her eyes.

  “I know that. But he never stopped loving her.”

  We had asked Crystal plenty of questions. But Stan had stayed away from the big one. She had seemed friendly enough so far. That was about to change soon.

  “What was your relationship to the victim?” Stan took the plunge.

  “He was my friend,” Crystal said simply. “Actually, he was much more than that.”

  It was the ‘much more’ we were interested in.

  “Where was your relationship going?” Stan asked next.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were friends and more…” Stan prompted. “Were you hoping to get married? That would make you the mistress of all this.”

  Stan whirled his hand around his head, indicating the mansion and the property.

  “Married? Are you out of your mind?” Crystal screamed.

  “How close were you to old Mr. Frank?” I pushed, ignoring her outburst.

  “You’re just like the rest of them,” she lashed out. “You see someone like me, you think we are bad people. You don’t see a girl earning an honest living.”

  “He was a rich old man. You are a beautiful girl in need of some support. It has been known to happen before.”

  “Teddy wasn’t a cradle robber,” Crystal said passionately. “He was helping me get my life back on track.”

  Stan raised his eyebrows.

  “What was he doing for you?”

  “He enrolled me in college, the same one Julie goes to. Julie and I are going to be roommates. Or we were going to be. I don’t think the Frank family will sponsor my education now.”

  “Why would he do that?” I challenged. “Why you and not someone else?”

  “I asked him that. He said he gave a lot of money to charity every year. Now he could actually help someone he liked. He said there would be a job waiting for me at Frank Foods when I finished my degree.”

  Crystal’s future hinged on the old man being alive and well. His untimely demise had put an end to her bright prospects.

  “Did Mr. Frank talk about
tarot to you anytime?” Stan asked suddenly.

  Crystal laughed.

  “He called it bunkum. He had no kind words for people who fell for that kind of crap.”

  I shook my head at Crystal.

  “Why did he invite Madam Isadora here then?”

  “That was my idea,” she admitted. “Teddy had some kind of entertainer at his Christmas party every year. He’s invited all sorts of people, it seems. He had his heart set on a magic show this year. But then I read an ad about this psychic.”

  “And he hired her even though he didn’t believe in it?” Stan queried.

  “It was all for fun,” Crystal explained. “Teddy didn’t believe in it, of course. He thought he would have some fun with his guests. Madam would tell someone they were in danger, predict some kind of dark future and they would all have a big laugh about it.”

  “Madam Isadora knew this?” I asked.

  “She’s not really a psychic,” Crystal divulged. “She’s an entertainer who poses as a psychic. It’s all part of her act.”

  “Do you know why Madam Isadora met Mr. Frank in his office?” Stan inquired.

  Crystal shrugged.

  “I didn’t know they talked. I didn’t stick to him all the time, you know.”

  “Did Mr. Frank ever tell you about his will?” I asked Crystal.

  I hadn’t really expected her to know anything about it. Crystal replied casually.

  “Sure. He had a new one ready for his lawyers.”

  Stan’s eyes popped out of their sockets.

  “Do you know where this will is?”

  “He didn’t tell me. He said it was going to be a big surprise for everyone.”

  Crystal had finally provided us with something worth pursuing.

  Chapter 18

  I went out in search of coffee. We generally have a British style tea. That means we eat some heavy snacks in the evening along with our tea. It was pushing 5 PM and my stomach was growling. A bunch of people occupied the living room, each engrossed in doing their own thing.

  The flurries from earlier had turned into fat snowflakes. The drapes were wide open, giving me a picture postcard view of the landscape outside. I heard a cane tapping somewhere in the hall. Pappa hobbled into sight.

  “Your Motee Ba is waiting for you in the kitchen,” he said.

  I made my way down the hall. Motee Ba and Julie were seated around a center island that ran through the kitchen. There was a big mixing bowl in front of them, full of chopped eggs. The cook was chopping celery and peppers and adding them to smaller bowls.

  “There you are!” Amanda called out from the pantry. “Your grandma said you make the best curried egg sandwiches.”

  “I was looking for something to nosh on myself,” I admitted.

  “Would you mind helping Mrs. Jones out? Add a finishing touch?”

  I couldn’t say no without looking churlish so I pitched in. Julie took a big bite of the first sandwich and exclaimed with her mouth full.

  “These are awesome!”

  We went to the living room, carrying trays of the egg sandwiches. Chamberlain promised to follow with tea.

  The Robinson sisters and Pappa wolfed down the sandwiches, looking relieved.

  “When are we going home?” he asked me.

  “Not until the roads are clear, Pappa.”

  “Can’t you do something to fix this?”

  “I have something in mind,” I promised. “We can look at it tomorrow.”

  The prospect of one more night in the Monster House didn’t sit well with Pappa. His face fell and he shivered, looking helpless in the big armchair by the fire.

  “Why don’t you mingle with the other people?” I asked gently. “Or talk to Henry about old times.”

  My grandpa and Henry Robinson are good friends, and they both share a love for England.

  I went up to my room and splashed some water on my face. Dad and Tony were nowhere in sight. I had no idea where they had wandered off to.

  Back in the living room, I took the seat next to Madam Isadora’s.

  “Your Dad and Tony went out with Ted Junior,” Motee Ba informed me. “They are looking at some cars.”

  The barn with the Ferrari was a good walk away so I didn’t think they would be back anytime soon.

  “Can you spare some time, Meera?” Stan asked from the hall.

  I’d had enough of talking about the crime. But there wasn’t much else to do. I couldn’t evade Stan for long in that house so I decided to get it over with.

  “I’m exhausted,” I complained, plopping down in front of him. “I don’t want to talk about this stuff anymore. Surely you are allowed to take a break?”

  “I’m with you. Let’s just try to sum up some things while they are still fresh in our minds.”

  “You sound like my study group,” I groaned.

  Stan was right though. We had heard so many stories from so many people since yesterday. It was time to combine all our notes and draw some conclusions.

  “I wish I had my white board.”

  I’m a very visual person. I need charts and graphs to make sense of information. Using a white board had helped me solve some murder mysteries in the last year.

  “I can’t offer you a white board,” Stan apologized. “But you can use as much paper as you want. How about starting a fresh sheet for each person? Or you can just read off my notes.”

  We started reading Stan’s notes. Some things were evident as we went through them.

  “More than one person says Amanda and Noah are having an affair. You think that’s true?”

  “Ted Junior doesn’t think so,” Stan pointed out. “But the spouse never knows this kind of stuff. So that means nothing. Both her kids say it’s true though.”

  “We need to find out more about this,” I told Stan. “Maybe talk to Amanda and Noah again.”

  I started a fresh sheet for action items and the Noah-Amanda affair became number 1 on the list.

  “What about father and son?” Stan asked next.

  “Which father and son?”

  “Ted Junior and Mr. Frank…how serious was their argument? Was either of them willing to budge from their position?”

  “We only have Junior’s word for it now.”

  “We can ask the rest of the family about it. They must have argued over something else in the past. Did the old man ever concede a point? Or did Junior ultimately give in to his father?”

  “Sophia might know.”

  Stan wasn’t too sure about that, considering Sophia hadn’t spent any time with either of them in the recent past. I noted down the point anyway.

  “What about Ryan?” I asked. “You think he’s doing drugs or something?”

  “Where did that come from?” Stan burst out. “Are you shooting in the dark?”

  “Well, he does music and stuff. Maybe he got into the habit and needed money. Old man refused to fund his addiction and he shot him in a burst of fury.”

  “You can ask but I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

  I made a note about Ryan. We definitely needed to know more about him and what he did with his time.

  “That Crystal girl,” Stan said. “Did you believe that stuff about funding her college education? Sounded made up to me.”

  “Who else could have known about it?” I mused. “We’ll have to ask the others. You think Julie knew?”

  We went back and forth, dissecting what every person had told us, trying to establish the facts.

  “Do we assume something is true just because more than one person said it?” I asked Stan. “This thing about Noah and Amanda for instance. Maybe they just have a grudge against Noah. They don’t like him living here. They could be making it all up.”

  “The butler said it too,” Stan pointed out.

  “Who do you think Chamberlain will be loyal to, Noah or the kids?”

  “When you put it that way…”

  “We have to get either Amanda or Noah to own up to it
,” I said.

  William Derry was another puzzle.

  “He seemed a bit odd.”

  Stan wouldn’t say more than that.

  I started a new list. Noah had made a dig about Chamberlain being an alcoholic. Both Julie and Ryan had talked about their mother’s affair. Amanda hadn’t been too happy with the old man. Chamberlain, of course, frowned on the alleged affair. Had Ted Junior talked down anyone in the family?

  I suddenly remembered what Tony and I had overheard. The old Stan would have arrested Ted Junior just on the basis of that.

  “We’ll have to ask him about it,” Stan said seriously.

  I shuffled the papers and stared at them in dismay.

  “This is getting even more complicated. Let’s try to reconstruct what happened.”

  “You were present here, Meera. Why don’t you try to remember?”

  I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the scene from the previous night.

  “It was getting late. We were about to leave. We were saying our goodbyes when we heard the shot. Someone came running and said the old man was hit.”

  Stan rifled through his note papers and pulled out a sheet. It was the drawing William Derry had given us.

  “How accurate is this? I know you saw this earlier but I want you to think really hard this time. If you can remember the people in this drawing, we’ll have two people vouching for this bunch.”

  I peered a bit more closely at the drawing this time around. William Derry hadn’t drawn faces and expressions but he had added something distinctive to represent each person, like Pappa’s cane or Madam Isadora’s turban. He had drawn stars to represent Crystal’s sequined dress.

  “These are us, right here,” I said, jabbing a finger at the sheet. “That’s Pappa and Motee Ba, Dad and Tony and me. This is Crystal and Madam Isadora.”

  “What about that figure on that couch over there?” Stan pointed.

  “That must be Sophia,” I said.

  She had been tired after her journey and the heavy dinner. Motee Ba had told her not to get up on our account.

  “That’s it?” Stan asked.

  “I think Ted Junior was standing by the fireplace, somewhere behind Dad, but I can’t be sure.”

  “Is he in the drawing?” Stan asked.