The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  Nora winced. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe Anita, it was just that she and Johnny were acting so strange. Anita always sounded bitter and jealous when Lori’s name was mentioned, and Johnny had looked and sounded…almost…demented. Nora tried to speak to Anita, but Anita pointedly turned her back to Nora and began browsing through the books.

  With nothing more to do at the library, Nora headed down to the diner instead, hoping to catch Austin on a break. She parked her car and just sat for a while, parsing through what she’d learned. Austin always looked so hopeful when she went to talk to him and, each time, it just added to Nora’s guilt. What if she let him down? What if they never figured out who did it or, worse, never found any proof, even though they knew who’d done it?

  The bell above the door clanked as Nora walked in. Tina gave her a little wave from behind the counter as she finished polishing a row of stacked glasses to a shine.

  “You look like you could scarf down a hippo,” Tina said. Then, frowning, she asked, “Everything okay with you? You’ve got that look about you…like you’ve got chewing gum stuck in your brain and are having a hard time scraping it off.”

  Nora laughed. “That’s one way to put it. Sorry. I’m just a little…lost. About Mason’s death.”

  “Of course.” Tina nodded. “Everyone’s been talking about it. And, of course, you’re the one who found him. I heard what happened.” Tina shuddered. “I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.”

  “I just wish I’d been able to see who it was,” Nora said. “I don’t even know if it was a man or a woman chasing me that night.”

  “If it helps, the police don’t know anything, either.” Tina winked. “Had a deputy here telling me they were hoping to find tire-tracks outside Mason’s house but, with the snowfall, everything got covered up.”

  “The killer has the luck of a lottery winner.” Nora sighed. “Poor Mason.”

  “I know.” Tina nodded. “He was always so full of life, you know? Just the other day he was in here bugging me to make him earrings. I told him I’d stopped designing those a long time ago.”

  Nora stared at her. “Mason was here? He asked you about earrings? Diamond earrings?”

  “How did you know? He had a sketch with him. I used to do a little jewelry design on the side back in the day, remember? He asked me if I could recreate one of my pieces.”

  “One of your pieces?”

  “Of course. As soon as he showed me the sketch of the design, I recognized it. An artist never forgets her best work.” Tina smiled. “It’s been twenty years, but I still remember.”

  “Tina!” Nora exclaimed. “These earrings - do you remember who you originally sold them to?”

  “Sure.” Tina nodded. “I mean, I had very few customers, to be honest. Just family and friends mostly. That’s why I eventually closed up shop.”

  “Who did you sell them to??”

  “Tucker Teaks,” Tina said. “I remember he wanted them packed nicely. A gift to Irene, I suppose.”

  Only it hadn’t been. Nora felt the ground shake beneath her feet. Tucker Teaks had given Lori the diamond earrings she’d been wearing the day she went missing. This changed everything.

  *****

  Chapter 17

  Teaks Speaks

  Tucker was in a good mood as he walked from the office to his car. His hair was being blown around by the wind and his cheeks were very red as he approached the driver’s side of his Ford Mustang. His lips were pursed together as he whistled Peter Bjorn and John’s Young Folks. The whistling cut off abruptly as he saw Sean and Nora sitting on his hood.

  “Sean? Nora? Need a ride or something?” He glanced from one to the other, confused.

  “We need to talk, actually,” Sean said, opening the passenger side door. “But yeah, let’s drive while we talk. I’ve got a feeling you’ll appreciate the privacy.”

  “What is this about?” Tucker’s friendliness vanished, replaced by suspicion. “It’s about Mason, isn’t it? Sheriff Ellerton told me not to talk to you.”

  “Oh, but I have a feeling you will want to talk to us,” Sean said. “Come on. Start the car.”

  Nora got into the backseat while Tucker slipped his seatbelt on. It was a lovely car, with dark leather seats and wood-paneled interiors. Tucker slid it into gear and roared out of the parking lot, his face grim. Looking straight at the road, he asked. “Well? What did you want to ask me?”

  “You lied to me.” Sean’s voice was icy. “All these years, I thought we were friends, but you lied to my face.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tucker said, trying to sound firm. Nora, however, saw the little smirk that appeared and then vanished from his face in a fraction of a second. Smug. That’s what Tucker was.

  “You were seeing Lori, weren’t you?” Nora asked, coming straight to the point.

  Tucker’s hands were steady on the wheel, and the smirk was back on his face. “Says who?”

  “You really have no shame. You were dating her behind your brother’s back. Even though you knew how Johnny felt about her. Why did you kill her, Tucker? ”

  Tucker stayed silent for a moment, then spoke harshly. “If you two think playing Sherlock is fun, do it on your own time. Leave me out of it. I never hurt Lori. I’m not that kind of guy.”

  He put the car into fifth gear and put some pressure on the accelerator. The car zoomed forward, thundering through the roads. In the back, Nora put her seatbelt on quietly and wondered if they’d made a mistake confronting Tucker this way. He seemed to be taking all of his rage out on the road.

  “Calm down before you get us into an accident, Tucker,” Sean said. Nora could tell he was feeling twinges of discomfort, too, as the car sped faster.

  Taking a deep breath, Tucker put one hand through his hair. Downshifting to a lower gear, he slowed the car down a little. His lips were pressed together. “I didn’t kill Lori,” he repeated. “Besides, you can’t prove a thing.”

  “You gave her a pair of diamond earrings,” Nora said. “She was wearing them the day she headed out to the cabin. Right before she went missing. Now why would you do that? Not out of the goodness of your heart, surely.”

  Tucker ground his teeth. “You don’t understand.”

  “So explain it to us,” Sean said.

  “It’s Johnny,” Tucker said. “It was just about Johnny. That’s all, ok? It’s just so hard to explain.”

  “We’re your friends, aren’t we?” Sean asked. “We’ll understand. Even if it sounds weird at first. But you can’t lie anymore, Tucker. You never should have lied in the first place.”

  “Well, what was I supposed to do? Tell you, ‘Hey, Sheriff, I bought the woman a pair of diamond earrings a few days before she vanished?’ Do you know how fast you’d have thrown me in the clink? No. I needed to make sure we looked out for ourselves, Johnny and I.”

  Nora exchanged glances with Sean. What did Tucker mean, Johnny and I? How was Johnny involved?

  “Tell us from the start,” Sean said. “When did you first realize you were attracted to Lori?”

  “I’m a red-blooded man, Sean.” Tucker laughed. “I’d be attracted to a turkey if you put it in a dress and slapped some make up on it. Lori was a good-looking woman and, like I said, she was always hanging around at Little League, making small talk with me. I was in the prime of my life back then, and there weren’t too many women around who could resist me.”

  “But Lori did resist you,” Nora pointed out. “She dated Johnny instead. Oh, that must have burnt you, Tucker. Must have hit you right in the ego. Your little brother dating a girl you were interested in? You must have wanted to show him up.”

  “That’s not how it was, woman!” Tucker slammed a hand on the dashboard, making Nora jump. “That’s not what it was at all! I love Johnny. He’s my kid brother. When our parents died, they made me promise to look after him and take care of him all my life. That’s all I was trying to do!”

  “Take care of him? B
y dating Lori? Rubbish!”

  “You don’t get it. Johnny’s an idiot. He’s always been great with books and numbers, but he was always a nerd. Girls used to laugh at him, and then they’d sidle up and bat their eyes and ask him for help doing homework. Johnny was enough of an idiot to actually help them, and think he was being a knight in shining armor. Then he’d feel heartbroken afterwards when they went off with football players like me. In other words, Johnny’s a patsy, always has been.”

  “That’s…true actually.” Sean nodded. “At least, it was in high school. Johnny was always dreaming about being the head cheerleader’s boyfriend. And she’d lead him on just enough to make him believe it, while getting her homework done for her. But people change. They get smarter.”

  “Do they? On some level, Johnny’s the same little kid who got bullied by Billy C. in 6th grade.” Tucker snorted. “Did I ever tell you about that, Nora? Those little punks thought they could come in and beat up my brother. My brother. I’m the only one allowed to beat him up, that’s what I said. I threw a shaken up Pepsi into their lockers and ruined their classwork, then I gave them a pounding for good measure. They never hassled Johnny again. You see? I looked out for him. I always have.”

  “But Lori—”

  “I thought Lori was a gold-digger the second she came into town,” Tucker said. “Single mother, being extra friendly with everyone…what’s a guy to think? Then she started dating Johnny and my suspicions were confirmed. She wasn’t really attracted to Johnny. She just wanted his money. I tried talking to him, but he just laughed at me. Told me I was jealous. He didn’t understand either. I knew I had to do something before she suckered him into putting a ring on her finger. I had to act fast. So I did. I laid on all my charm. I promised her the earth and the stars. I gave her diamonds and listened to her talk and acted like I cared about her kid and, whaddaya know? She fell for it. Why wouldn’t she? The same money, the same stability, but with a far handsomer man.” Tucker gave a cynical laugh. “Well, I guess I was a little bitter about the way Johnny had laughed at me. So I told her we’d reveal everything to our friends at the cabin. I wanted to see the look on his face, you know. Only that never happened. She never showed up.”

  “Because you killed her,” Nora said.

  “I didn’t!” Tucker yelled. “I really didn’t. Why would I? I’d gotten what I wanted out of her already. I’d prove my point to Johnny. Why would I ever hurt her?”

  Nora bit her lip. She hated to admit it, but Tucker had a point. Why would he hurt Lori when everything was going his way?

  “One more question,” Nora said. “When were you going to tell Lori that you didn’t mean anything you’d said to her? After the cabin?”

  Tucker shrugged. “I’d planned to let her speak, then humiliate her for being a gold-digger and make sure she never showed her face around us again.”

  Nora wished she could slap the smug smirk off Tucker’s face. She didn’t believe a word he was saying. Maybe he told himself that he was doing it all to protect Johnny, but it was patently obvious to her that he’d acted out of jealousy and cruelty. What kind of psychopath would lead a woman on and then cruelly dump her? What kind of unfeeling villain would hurt his brother the way Tucker had planned to? Tucker had sneakily planned out the worst way to humiliate Johnny. It would have destroyed him.

  “The thing is…” Sean said slowly. “We only have your word for it.”

  “What?” Tucker looked up.

  “Lori was rich. Very rich. You claim you didn’t know that. But what if you did? What if you’d only tried to woo her because you wanted her money? Maybe you were the gold-digger all along. Then, when all your diamonds and charm couldn’t buy Lori’s love, you killed her in a fit of rage and disposed of her body.”

  “No!” Tucker turned white. “That’s not what happened! I’m telling the truth. She had fallen for me. I’m telling you. She was pathetically in love with me and she thought I was in love with her. I had no idea about her money. Yeah, maybe I’d have done things differently if I did. But I didn’t!”

  “Where were you the night Mason was murdered?” Sean asked him, his voice like steel. “You’ve got no alibi, do you?”

  “I was watching the game at home!” Tucker exclaimed, looking green. “Irene was there, too.”

  “No, she wasn’t. She was upstairs taking a bath,” Nora said. “Which gives you enough time to slip out and back in.”

  “That woman and her bubble baths,” Tucker grumbled. “Just because she decided to spend an hour shampooing her hair doesn’t mean I’m the murderer, does it? I’m telling you, I had nothing to do with Lori’s death and I have nothing to do with Mason’s. I’m innocent. If you have to arrest someone, just arrest Austin. He’s an outsider, isn’t he? We know nothing about him.”

  “I’ve heard enough,” Nora said, feeling sick. “Drop me here, will you? I’ll walk home.”

  “Look, we’re all friends,” Tucker said. “Can’t you two just drop this? There’s no need to tell Sheriff Ellerton any of this stuff about the diamond earrings. Ok? We can just keep this to ourselves. You help me, I’ll help you.”

  “Help us? How do you plan to do that?” Sean asked. “Face it, Tucker, we hold all the cards now.”

  The car screeched to a halt and Tucker turned to look at them. “You two really aren’t going to drop this, are you?”

  “No,” Nora said.

  “Well, if not for me, consider doing it for Austin’s sake. Imagine how heartbroken the kid will be when he finds out his mother’s real character. She was dating two brothers at once, all for their money.”

  “You keep saying that,” Nora said, her voice acidic. “You keep conveniently forgetting that she was far richer than you, just so you can make yourself look like a good guy somehow. Lori did nothing wrong. She was dating Johnny, but they weren’t serious yet. She dated you, and fell for you. The only mistake she made was not seeing past your superficial charm and realizing just how rotten you are.”

  “Alright fine,” Tucker said. “Then I can help you in a different way. I can help you catch the actual murderer.”

  Sean stared at him. “What do you mean?”

  Tucker rubbed the back of his neck. “I think you know what I mean. There’s one more thing I haven’t told you. Something that might just help you catch the real killer. There’s something I know - and only I know - that might change everything.”

  “You’re bluffing,” Nora said.

  “I’m not,” Tucker replied. “Just give me 24 hours. Just 24 hours and you’ll know what I know. Please? What do you have to lose? It’s been twenty years already. Another day can’t hurt.”

  “No,” Sean said. “Nothing doing. We’re going to Ellerton immediately. Take it or leave it.”

  “Please, Nora,” Tucker said. “I need to think this through. I really do. You don’t understand. It’s…it’s not easy for me. I’ve kept this a secret for twenty years. Just one more night.”

  Nora hesitated. “It’s dangerous,” she said, finally. “The killer might come after you.”

  “He won’t know,” Tucker said. “Not unless one of you blabs to someone. Tomorrow, at this time, we’ll meet at my house again. Ok? And I’ll make it all clear.”

  Nora sighed. Against her better judgment, she replied, “Fine. Tomorrow at 5. But if you’re even a minute late, we go to the sheriff.”

  *****

  Chapter 18

  Darkness and Light

  Nora told Harvey everything that had happened over dinner. Harvey listened to it all with a neutral expression, only showing the briefest of disgust when Nora described Tucker’s cruel plan.

  “Tucker’s clearly a sociopath.” Harvey shook his head. “At the very least, I can say for sure that he has no conscience. But, Nora, you should have called me, sweetheart. I would have been there, too.”

  “I know but you had that important client coming in today, and you’re still recovering from the flu,” Nora said. “I didn’t want to tro
uble you too much.”

  “Trouble?” Harvey caught her hands and kissed the back of them gently. “You’re my girl, Nora. You come first. Anyway, what’s done is done. From here on out, I’m with you every step of the way. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Nora said with a big smile on her face.

  “Ok, now let’s think through this, step by step,” Harvey said. “We have four real suspects here, and each of them has a stake in what happened. The question is: who pulled the trigger?”

  Nora nodded and began counting off on her fingers. “There’s Anita, who’s strangely jealous of Lori. There’s Johnny, who tried to pay Austin to leave the case alone. There’s Tucker, who doesn’t have a conscience, and—”

  The phone rang, interrupting her. Nora glanced at the clock. “It’s past midnight. Who could be calling this late?” Dread suddenly washed over Nora, the certainty that they’d made a horrible mistake in allowing Tucker his 24 hours. Even before she ran over to pick up the phone, Nora had a premonition that bad news was to follow.

  “Nora! Nora!” It was a woman on the other end of the line and she was screaming, hysterical. “You have to help! He’s hurt! He’s badly hurt!”

  “Hello? Who is this?” Nora felt her stomach drop. She was right. Something had happened.

  “It’s Karen,” she said. “Sean’s hurt, Nora. You need to get over here immediately.”

  “Where are you?” Nora asked. “I’ll call the police.”

  “At home. The ambulance and police are on their way, but Sean keeps asking for you.” Karen’s breath came in large gasps. Finally, she began to calm down. “I’m sorry I lost control like that, it’s just…oh, he’s bleeding!”

  “Karen.” Nora fought to keep her voice in control. “Harvey and I will be right there, do you hear me? Just give us ten minutes. Stay calm. I’m sure Sean will be fine. He’s a tough one.”