by Sonia Parin
Abby gave a small shrug. “I don’t answer to anyone, so I’m free to ask the tough questions.”
“She could lodge a harassment suit against you,” Faith warned. “Then you’ll be answering to the law.”
“Nonsense. She’s guilty of something. She has to be.”
“Yes, of having a mean temper and unfriendly disposition.” Faith shifted in her seat and tightened her hold on the steering wheel. “Something tells me I’m going to live to regret this.”
Doyle clambered up onto Abby’s lap and looked Abby in the eye. “What? Do you have something to say?”
“If Doyle could talk, I’m sure he’d be asking you to rethink your tactics,” Faith said.
Abby hadn’t been entirely truthful with Faith. Yes, she wanted to see how far she could push Denise Lowe. Everyone had a breaking point. Most importantly, she wanted to see how her brother would react.
He hadn’t left town. Joshua had sent her a text message confirming it.
They pulled up outside Rosebud Cottage. “Looks like we nearly missed them.” Denise Lowe stood on the front porch, a suitcase next to her, her attention on her cell phone.
Faith tapped her finger on the steering wheel. “Here’s an idea. If Joshua checked everyone’s phone records, I bet anything he’d come up with a connection. It always worked for Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote.”
Abby heard her cell phone ringing. She drew both out and held them up. When Faith laughed, Abby said, “What? They both have the same ring tone.” She answered her second cell. “Detective. What can I do for you?”
“You could tell me where you are,” Joshua said.
“Getting some fresh air.”
Joshua sighed. “I know you’ve been restless, so I wanted to let you know I canvassed the area and no one noticed anything unusual. I also followed the trail of the missing teabag.”
“I’m listening.”
“Nothing. Came up empty.”
“I know what I saw,” Abby insisted. At least, she thought she’d seen a teabag. “I think you’ve just confirmed my assailant’s motive. They followed me, saw that I was about to find the teabag, they hit me over the head and made off with the teabag and my cell. That teabag might have been the one that delivered the fatal dosage.”
“According to the pathologist, the digitalis had been delivered in small doses over time,” Joshua explained. “One teabag is not going to cut it. We’ve tested the ones we found and they were free of any foreign substances. That means there’s a hole in your theory.”
“What about the person I saw in his room the night before he died. He or she might have gone in to remove the evidence.”
“Why?”
“Because… Because maybe they knew his time was coming to an end.” Abby rubbed her brow. “For all we know, Bert might have been drinking some other tea. A special blend supplied by one of his friends. My mom said Bert had complained of fatigue. If she heard him, then someone else did too and must have realized their efforts had finally paid off.”
“All right. I’m starting to like the sound of that.”
“You should try coming down hard on someone,” Abby suggested. “Try Alice. If she knows something, she’ll talk. Tell her you’re onto her. Tell her you have proof she colluded with Bert’s son.”
“Whoa. I thought we’d been over that,” Joshua said.
“Yeah, well… I’m not convinced. And I don’t believe he came up here to give his sister moral support. I think he came to make sure all the evidence disappears.”
“Abby.”
“Yes?”
“Will you promise to stay out of trouble?”
“Of course. I have to go now.” Abby unbuckled her seat belt and turned to Faith. “Ready?”
Pushing out a breath, Faith nodded. “I guess now I know how a foot soldier feels, blindly following their commander. Out of curiosity, am I getting hazard pay?”
“I thought you’d be pleased to accompany me. You always complain about having to stay behind at the office and missing out on all the excitement.”
Faith hummed. “She doesn’t look pleased to see us.”
“How can you tell? She hasn’t changed her expression.” Denise Lowe’s mouth was set in a grim line and lifted slightly to suggest a sneer and her cheeks appeared to be sucked in.
“My heart’s pumping hard against my chest. Is that normal?” Faith asked.
“Don’t worry, once the adrenaline kicks in, you’ll be fine and ready for battle.”
“Do you have your kid gloves on? I’m sure the situation calls for them,” Faith said.
“Yes, of course. We wouldn’t want to incite her wrath.”
“I think you’re misleading me. A moment ago, you said you were going to confront her.”
“Come on, this is your chance to prove your mettle.” Abby strode up to the front stoop.
“You. What are you doing here?” Denise Lowe snapped.
“I’m performing my civic duty.” Abby lifted her chin. “I wanted you to know your dad enjoyed his final days surrounded by friends…”
Denise snorted. “Is this some sort of macabre last-ditch attempt to sweeten me up and let your mom have the drawing? You’re all vultures. Circling around. I won’t have any of it. You’ll all be hearing from my lawyer.”
“As I was trying to say, your dad spent his last days enjoying himself and living life to the full. But since you want to talk about last wills and testaments, I’ll happily go along. You ran your dad’s household. You knew everything about his comings and goings. You knew he’d planned on bequeathing money to his friends.”
Denise’s eyes hardened and she pursed her lips.
Abby tilted her head. “I’m thinking you wanted to put a stop to it all, but you knew your dad very well. He might have allowed you to organize things for him, but when it came to financial matters, the buck stopped with him.” Abby’s wild guess about Bert’s character failed to have the desired effect. Abby watched for a reaction but Denise’s face had turned to steel. “He’d been an accountant his entire life, keeping track of every penny. Suddenly, there he was, with more money than he knew what to do with. To your horror, he started splurging it around.” Abby put her foot on the first step. “You had to put an end to it before he gave it all away.”
Denise leaned down and sneered at her. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. I knew he wanted to share his winnings with his friends by going on a trip and, for your information, I also knew he’d named his friends in his will.” Denise shrugged. “He left everyone some money but the bulk of it goes to his family.”
“Then why contest the will?”
“You should ask those vultures he called his friends. He paid for the trip, but he also gave them loans. Loans which had to be paid back. My dad’s generosity had limits.”
Abby frowned. “Really? You expect me to believe that? Your dad planned on leaving you some money, but not all of it. In fact, he wanted to change the will.” Abby went for broke and pulled another fabricated lie out of the hat. “He’d already made an appointment with his attorney.” To her surprise, Denise blanched.
Faith whispered, “Are we sitting ducks out here? I feel someone has us in their sights. Please tell me we’re not about to be shot.”
Faith’s concerns were not unfounded. Abby sensed someone watching them too. They’d already taken enough risks. “You know what? I tried to be nice. I thought perhaps you might be in the midst of having a delayed reaction to your dad’s passing. But I see there might be something to everything I’ve said, so I’m going to pass the information onto the police and let them handle it.”
Abby swung around and, grabbing a hold of Faith’s arm, she strode back to the car saying, “There’s nothing wrong with a cowardly retreat.” Doyle was the first one to jump in the car. “There’s a good boy.”
Once they were back on the road, Faith pushed out a breath. “That felt like a close call. I think you got to Denise. Question is, what will she
do now?”
“I think Denise will simply go home.”
“Really? Surely she must realize the police will listen to you and turn her life inside and out until they get to the bottom of her involvement.”
“Yeah, I actually think her brother is the one who’ll be trying to tunnel a way out.” She drew out her cell and called Joshua. “Before you growl at me, can I just say I meant well.”
“What did you do?” Joshua asked.
“I tried to push a few buttons.”
They drove back to the pub in silence. When Faith’s cell beeped, she asked Abby to check the message. “It’s my mom. She sent an attachment. Why is she sending you things?”
“She knows I’m the one who runs to the office to print things out.”
“Oh, right. Smart thinking. Okay, she’s obviously been busy researching. I guess you have to swing by the newspaper and do some more printing.”
“I’ll drop you off at Joyce’s,” Faith said. “You look as if you need another shot of caffeine.”
Abby rubbed her temple. “Yes. I think I do. I’m experiencing a post-adrenaline rush slump.”
“Joyce will perk you up in no time.”
Faith’s cell beeped again. “It’s my mom, again. She wants to connect.” Abby drew out her second cell phone. Frowning, she looked at Faith. “What if the killer didn’t act alone? How did they communicate with their accomplice?”
“Only one way to know for sure. As I said, Jessica Fletcher would check the phone records. How about you go in and have your coffee?” Faith suggested. “I’ll send Joshua a text message asking him to look into everyone’s phone records. I’d like to see if I have any influence over him.”
When Faith stopped the car outside the café, Abby slid out and adjusted Doyle’s coat. “We don’t want you catching a chill. Come on. The wind has some bite. Let’s go inside.”
Striding in, she almost collided with Joyce who stood waiting for her, her arms crossed, her expression serious.
“You’ve chased my customers away,” Joyce growled.
Abby looked around the café. There were only a couple of tables free. “What are you talking about? The place is buzzing.”
“The tourists. They’ve stayed away all day. I had to call Mitch to find out if they were still in town.”
Abby settled down at a table and set up the video chat. “Say hello to my mom.”
Joyce fixed a smile in place and waved to her mom. “How are you enjoying your stay in our quiet little town, Eleanor?”
“Oh, give it up, Joyce. I know all about Bert being killed.”
“Heavens,” Joyce exclaimed. “Killed? How? When?”
Chapter Eleven
Crossing the street, Abby met Faith.
“What are you so happy about?” Faith asked.
Abby smiled. “For once, Joyce was late with the news. She had no idea my mom knew about the murder. Oh, and look. We’ve been shopping. Doyle has a new coat in royal blue.” An hour away from her apartment had been enough to clear Abby’s head. She had no business getting involved in murder investigations. In a few days, her mom’s virtual tour would be over and Abby could go back to work. By then, Joshua would have made an arrest. The truth had to come out, eventually.
“Where is your mom?” Faith asked.
“I left her at Joyce’s café. She’s making the rounds, getting to know the locals.” They avoided the bar and went in the residents’ entrance. “What’s this?” Abby asked as she noticed the piece of paper Faith held.
Faith waved it and smiled. “It’s the attachment your mom sent. I printed it out. It’s a drawing.” They strode into Abby’s apartment and Faith made a beeline for the wall and added the drawing to their collage. “You know how she’d been trying to remember which tourist was missing from the group the night before Bert died? Well, she put pencil to paper. I think she did a great job capturing their likenesses. Anyway, she circled a name. Steph. While she saw Alice getting up and Linda sitting down, oh and Cynthia approaching the table with a glass in her hand, she finally noticed Steph had been missing.”
So, she must have been the one in Bert’s room, Abby thought.
“Your mom did some more research and discovered Steph owned a restaurant. A few months ago, the restaurant had a couple of cases of food poisoning so the health inspectors shut it down.”
“Someone else in need of money,” Abby said.
Faith squinted as she read the printout. “She found Steph’s full name in one of the social media accounts and the information about the restaurant in a local online newspaper dating back a couple of months. You really have to be careful what goes up online.”
“That’s all well and good, but we didn’t see Steph talking with Robert Howington. We saw Alice. We’re going to have to corner her and see if we can squeeze something out of her.”
“Because the tactic worked so well with Denise Lowe?” Faith asked.
Abby grabbed a pen and tapped it against her chin. “Denise Lowe mentioned there’d been loans. If Bert organized a loan for Steph, she might have seen her opportunity to have her cake and eat it too. If she got rid of Bert, she wouldn’t have to pay back the loan. That would save her a bundle.”
“Really? Most people usually shop around for better deals.”
“It’s strange,” Abby said. “From the start, I’d been thinking the person I thought I saw in Bert’s room might have been having an affair with him.”
Faith settled down on the couch with the laptop. “I’m going to spend some time on those social media pages your mom found. Maybe I can find something she missed. Although, that’s highly unlikely.”
Yes, Abby agreed. Despite all her efforts to keep her mom in the dark, she’d turned out to be quite helpful and forgiving. Of course, she could be biding her time and waiting for an appropriate moment to tell Abby she should pack her bags and flee for her life before she became a statistic.
“I might have to dash out and get some more photos printed,” Faith said.
“What did you find?”
Faith scooped in a breath. “I’m not sure. I’ve been looking at the group photos from the gardening club. They’re all in different gardens.” Faith turned the laptop so Abby could see. “Do you notice anything?”
Abby looked from one person to the other. After a moment, she looked up at the wall and at the first photo she’d taken of the group. “Alice and Linda are always standing next to Bert.”
“Yes.”
Abby leaned forward. “There are always two other people between Steph and Bert. Almost like a buffer.”
Faith clicked her fingers. “That’s it.” She pointed at one photo and then the other and the other.
“We didn’t want to be too obvious about it,” Abby said under her breath.
“What are you talking about?” Faith asked.
“I just remembered something Cynthia said when we saw her outside Bert’s room. Now that mom has singled Steph out as the one person missing from the group that first night, I bet anything she’s the one I saw opening the door.”
Had Steph been having an affair with Bert? Worse. Had she used the affair as a way to get close to him and slowly poison him? Abby needed to bite the bullet and call Joshua. He could use his police resources to find out if Steph had borrowed money from Bert. With her restaurant out of action, she would have been in need of money.
“Surprised to hear from me again, detective?” Abby asked.
“Denise Lowe has lodged a formal complaint against you,” Joshua said. “For harassment.”
“Hello to you too.”
“When I spoke with Denise Lowe, her voice hitched,” Joshua continued. “Whatever you said really got to her.”
“Well then, my job is done. Hang on, I’m feeling a pang of guilt now.” Denise Lowe might have come across as a woman of steel, but what if that really had been her way of coping with her loss?
“Think of this as a lesson, Abby Maguire. You have to learn to live with collat
eral damage or be careful whose feathers you ruffle.”
“Duly noted, detective. Now, can you tap into your resources and find out if Steph had taken out a loan?” She explained the rest of her theory and finished by saying, “If she had the most to gain by Bert’s death, she would have been smart to stay in the background.”
“By the way, you can tell Faith we’ve checked everyone’s phone records. No one made any calls.”
“None? That’s odd. I know they’re all on vacation, but surely they keep in touch with family.” Frowning, Abby tried to remember something. “Hang on. I remember coming up for a sweater and walking past one of the rooms. I heard someone talking.”
Faith picked up Abby’s second new cell phone and waved it.
Biting her bottom lip, Abby nodded in agreement. “You’ll have to dig deeper, detective. Someone must have a second phone. Hang on. Does this mean you looked into Robert Howington too?”
“Yes, as much as it hurts me to admit it. There are no records of him getting in touch with any of the tourists. Of course, now I have to dig deeper and make sure there isn’t a second phone. I guess my work is cut out. I’ll call you back.”
Abby gave a slow shake of her head. “That’s amazing. Joshua just told me he’d call me back and he’s following the lead. When did he become so co-operative?”
“Are you complaining?”
“I’m a lifestyle reporter,” Abby said under her breath.
“Markus!” Abby sprung to her feet.
“What about him?” Faith asked.
“He’s the one who first mentioned Steph missing from the group the day I was attacked. Now I’m thinking Steph might have seen Denise Lowe and her brother leaving and realized she could grab her chance to go back inside Bert’s room, but then she found me and… hit me over the head.”
Doyle leaped off the couch and scurried toward the door. When Abby heard him whine, she asked, “What’s up, Doyle?” he looked at her over his shoulder and then went back to sniffing the door.
“I think there might be someone at the door,” Faith whispered.
Abby tiptoed to the door and pressed her ear to it. Making sure Doyle stepped out of the way, she scooped in a breath and wrenched the door open. Propelling herself forward, she caught sight of someone disappearing down the hallway.