The Corpse at the End of the Chapter

by Karen Hayes

“No. Well, you know Carol. She’s your typical spinster. Sex was probably the furthest thing from her mind, ever. But let’s see if we can find out some more about her. Her nephew runs the local bank, so she probably has her own account there. Ready to do a little hacking?”

  “Oh, Louise, this hacking stuff kind of scares me.”

  “Don’t worry. We’re not going to do anything. We’re just going to look.”

  A few keystrokes later and Louise was through the protective firewalls and into the bank’s records and had Carol’s account pulled up. What they found astounded them. Carol had amassed a very large amount of money, more than a small town nurse could save in several lifetimes.

  “Can you find where the money came from?” Copper asked.

  Louise clicked a few more times. “Well, she has a small, but regular amount every week from the Misty Valley Times.”

  Copper clapped her hand to her mouth. “Louise! Carol must be Dinty’s advice columnist!”

  “You think? Carol?”

  Copper nodded enthusiastically, then began to laugh. “Who woulda thunk? But that doesn’t account for the size of her account. Where else is the money coming from?”

  Louise discovered a $1,000 a month payment transferred from Agatha’s account. The two women looked at each other in surprise. Why was Agatha paying Carol all that money?

  “Can you tell how long that’s been happening?” Copper asked.

  A few more clicks and Louise reported that the $1,000 per month transfer had been happening for a long time. She went back for years in Carole’s account and the money was there, every single month without fail.

  “Blackmail, do you suppose?” Louise asked.

  “Carol found out about Agatha and Drew Senior.”

  “Looks like it. Question is, why did they remain good friends? Or was that just for show?”

  “That still doesn’t explain the amount in Carol’s account. She’s got close to a half million dollars there. Look further.”

  Louise did. She found a number of other large suspect deposits, but, except for $500 a month from Lars Olsen—that raised their eyebrows, so they would definitely have to investigate Lars—they were made in cash, so she had no idea where they came from. Perhaps more blackmail? What else did Carol know about the residents of Misty Valley that they wanted to keep secret? Louise also discovered that over the years, Carol had been making very shrewd investments. The quiet, blackmailing spinster had taken her meager earnings (and blackmail money), then her Social Security, and had grown what was really a small amount into a fortune.

  “And that’s just what she has in the bank,” Louise remarked. “Who knows how much is still out there in investment accounts.”

  “I don’t know if this makes for a motive or not. Killing Agatha would lose her $1,000 a month,” Copper said. “To use a cliché, you don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg.”

  “Maybe Agatha told Carol she wasn’t going to pay any longer. Agatha did tell me a couple of weeks ago that she had to go into the city to take care of some financial matters, although I know she also banked here.”

  “Can you check out her bank account?”

  “No. Brandon closed it out the other day.”

  “But wouldn’t the records still exist?”

  “Let me check.” A few keystrokes later, she announced, “I guess she did tell Carol she wasn’t going to pay her anymore. The amount in Agatha’s account when Brandon closed it was just a little over $700.00.”

  “Do you see the payouts to Carol there?”

  “Yes, but the rest are just miscellaneous expenses—gas bill, electric bill, groceries.

  “So we do have a motive.”

  “Maybe. But Carol would then lose her traveling partner. Those trips were the highlight of their lives. When we were in Italy, those two were like kids in a candy store everywhere we went. So, let’s check out Vince before we jump to any conclusions. Why do you suspect him?”

  “I understand he was, uh, interested in Ruby at one time, maybe still was.”

  “So why does that give him a motive?”

  “Ruby rejected him and Agatha knew about it?”

  “Again, that’s stretching it a bit, Copper,” Louise said with a roll of her eyes. “But we’ll check him out.”

  There wasn’t much to find on Vince. He hadn’t done anything to get his name in the papers. Copper already knew he’d inherited his gas station and auto repair shop from his father. His sister was Trevor Hodges’ mother. A check of his bank account showed nothing out of the ordinary. He didn’t pay Trevor much for his help at the gas station, but Trevor’s help was minimal and he received a hefty allowance from his parents, so didn’t really need what his Uncle Vince paid him. His bills appeared to be paid quite regularly, there were a few cash withdrawals. As far as the internet was concerned, Vince Kinney was squeaky clean.

  “There’s still the big crush on Ruby thing,” Copper said. “But I think he’s probably at the very bottom of the list.”

  “Why aren’t you looking at any of the other customers who were there?”

  “We kind of ruled them out as not having any reason to kill Agatha.”

  “Well, it doesn’t look to me like Vince had any reason either. Let’s look at some of the others—definitely Lars, since he was paying a monthly stipend to Carol as well. Not that it would be a motive to murder Agatha. Who found the body?”

  “Lucy.”

  “Lucy Stafford? For heaven’s sake, Copper, there’s your number one suspect right there.”

  “Lucy?”

  “Yes. She and Agatha were mortal enemies. They hated each other.”

  “Why?”

  “Billy tore up a few books, and Agatha banned him from the library for life.”

  “Oh, my, for life? Well, I admit Billy is kind of, well, I guess I can say it—a brat—although, if my memory serves me right from when my own children were young, probably a typical three-year-old brat. But a motive for murder?”

  “Believe me, Copper, in Lucy’s eyes Billy can do no wrong. He is spoiled rotten. I’m sure that to Lucy, tearing up the books was just showing his creativity. She and Agatha nearly came to blows when Billy was banned from the library. Lucy even went to the mayor, but he sided with Agatha, said parents needed to watch their kids better. Next election, Lucy’s going to vote for Lars. So Lars will have two votes—his own and Lucy’s, maybe Lucy’s husband, but I wouldn’t make book on it.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “About three weeks ago.”

  “That recent? Well, that does put a different spin on things, doesn’t it?”

  “I would say Lucy is definitely a possibility,” Louise said, “much more of a possibility than Wendy, Vince, or Carol. At least for Agatha’s murder. Not so sure about Ruby. Who else do we have?”

  “You know, it’s amazing, in such a small town, how little you know about people you’ve known forever. I taught Lucy in second grade. Okay, how about...Marian.”

  “I don’t know all that much about Marian. However, as the daughter-in-law of Misty Valley’s biggest gossip, I can tell you that she was the closest thing to a friend Ruby had in high school. And Agatha liked her. Thought she got a bum rap from Robert number one.”

  “Well, that’s true. I think Bob was unfaithful right from the beginning. Abby Taylor was not the first.”

  “Nor the last. Abby’s in Portland now.”

  “Is she?”

  “Yes. Agatha and I ran into her a few weeks ago when we were in the city shopping. She’d been there about eight years, I think she said. She said she thought Bob was still in Alaska, but she wasn’t sure. She has shaggy pink and purple hair, multiple piercings, and is living with the lead guitarist in a rock band several years her junior. Agatha was trying to talk her into going into rehab.”

  Copper sighed. “And she was such a sweet child. But back to Marian, I’m guessing you wouldn’t consider her a suspect.”

  “I wouldn’t. Who’s next?”


  “Vivian?”

  Louise thought for a moment. “This is a hard one, but I think, no. Jim helped Agatha whenever she had computer problems and she invited them—and Missy—over to dinner a number of times. Agatha thought Missy was a sweet child. While I don’t think Vivian particularly liked Agatha, I can’t think of any reason why she would kill her—or Ruby. Would you like some more tea?”

  “Oh, yes, please. And, if you don’t mind, I’d love just a sliver more of that luscious cheesecake.”

  “You liked that, did you?” Louise asked as she refilled Copper’s teacup and cut them both another piece of cheesecake. “I made it myself. It didn’t come from Eve.”

  “Well, I am impressed. But Louise, I did just ask for a sliver, not a whole piece.” She took a forkful and smiled. “Not that I’m going to give it back, though.”

  Louise leaned back in her chair and laughed. “Do you have enough suspects now, or shall we check out a few more?”

  “Let’s see. We have Celine Webb and her boyfriend who, by the way, was the warden when Ruby was in prison.”

  “Now that’s interesting. Shall we check him out?”

  Copper shrugged. “He did know Agatha, since she visited Ruby in prison, but I doubt he knew where she lived—or that he would see her that morning. I mean, people don’t usually carry a carving knife around with them unless they plan to use it. Whoever killed Agatha came to the bookstore with that in mind.”

  “Well, let’s check him out, anyway. When and how did Celine meet him?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve seen them together before. But I barely remember seeing him at the store that morning. And they were together at Agatha’s funeral. Harve told me who he was.”

  “Okay, let’s see what we can find. What’s his name?”

  Copper couldn’t remember, so she consulted her list. “Don Sargent.”

  Louise went to work on her computer. She discovered that he had worked as a guard for many years, was the Warden at the women’s facility of the Oregon State Prison for even more years, had then transferred to the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility when it was completed, worked there for a few years, then went to the Columbia River Correctional Facility in Portland, from which he had retired just a few months ago. He seemed to have a pretty good record. He had been married, one daughter, wife divorced him about twenty-five years ago. So he was still married when Ruby was an inmate in his prison. He sued for custody, but lost. Ex-wife took daughter and moved to California. Ex-wife died. Whereabouts of daughter unknown. “Oh, just a minute,” Louise said after a time. “Here’s some more on the ex-wife. Seems she didn’t just die, she was murdered. That was when the daughter, who was mentally disabled, disappeared. Sargent was considered a person of interest, but there was no evidence. He was on vacation at the time, but he claims he was in Canada on his vacation and never went anywhere near California. This was…twenty-two years ago. Oh, my, this is starting to read like a novel. I might have to use this in my next book. Maybe the mentally disabled daughter did it.”

  “I’m assuming this was before you needed to use a passport to go to Canada,” Copper said.

  “Oh, yes, this was years ago. So no way to check that out, unless he had hotel receipts or something, which he may have had. I’m sure the police did as much as they could. Looks like no one knows what happened to the daughter. She’s still missing. Well, as of the date of this paper, which was a long time ago, fifteen years. This is all very interesting. However, it has no bearing at all on our case. It happened long after Ruby was out of prison. Now, how about Celine herself? I don’t know much about her. Did she and Agatha even know each other?”

  “I don’t know. Celine and Paul just moved to Pleasant View about ten years ago, right after her divorce. She’s from back east somewhere. But pretty much everyone knew Agatha. I don’t think Celine has anything to do with the killings. Or Paul, either”

  “I agree. Who else?”

  Copper looked down the list. “Mike Fields?”

  Louise made a dismissive gesture.

  “Lars Olsen?”

  “Hmmm.” Louise started typing. “I doubt he’s our killer, but wouldn’t it be nice to find something on him? A nasty piece of work, especially since it seems Carol was blackmailing him, too. I wonder what she had on him. Hey, maybe he and Ruby were having an affair and Agatha found out about it!”

  “Lars is just in his thirties. Ruby is—was 45.”

  “Maybe Ruby was a cougar.” Louise giggled. “Lars couldn’t get any other woman, so maybe he settled for Ruby.”

  “Well, let’s see what we can find out. I think his primary problem is his ego,” Copper told her. “He hates it when any woman turns him down. Do you know if either of them had any legal dealings with him?”

  Louise shook her head. “But here’s some skinny on him. He practiced for a while in Seattle. Did you know that?”

  “Yes. He apparently did quite well in law school, and after passing the bar, he got an offer immediately with a Seattle firm. Why he left that cushy job and came back home to ‘the boonies,’ as he likes to call this area, is something I have never understood. Although I know his father was ailing at the time, so that might have been the reason.”

  “Well, Copper, he may not have had any choice,” Louise told her as she pulled up a new item online. “It seems his Seattle law firm fired him after they learned he had lied about his grades. They threatened to sue him for misrepresenting himself unless he left Seattle for good. That little bit of info actually made the Seattle newspapers. It seems he barely passed the bar.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Very. Obviously, Carol knew about him and was blackmailing him. If Agatha found out about it, that might be a motive for murder. He wouldn’t want to pay two blackmailers.”

  “Okay. He’s on the list, although you would have thought he’d have killed Carol. She’s the one he was already paying the money to.” She shrugged. “So, let’s see. We’ve got Carol, Drew, maybe Vince, Lucy and Lars. And information we can use to investigate them further. I’ll discretely pass this along to the sheriff. And Louise, might I possibly take a piece of your cheesecake for him. Harve is a sucker for desserts and it’ll put him in a better mood for what I’m going to tell him.”

  “Of course.” Louise laughed and cut two pieces of cheesecake for Copper to take with her. “You won’t want Harve to eat alone.”

  SEVENTEEN

  WHEN COPPER GOT BACK TO THE BOOK NOOK, she found Trevor waiting with Monica, ready to go to lunch. Copper apolo-gized and sent the two on their way. Looking out the front window, she could see that Harve’s police car was not parked in front of his office. He was probably to lunch himself. She hoped he would save room for some cheesecake. But she thought she had better run up and put it in the refrigerator right away, as there were no customers.

  She needed some lunch herself. Two pieces of cheesecake did not a lunch make. She called the Rainy Day and asked Suds if there was any way someone could deliver a burger and a small order of onion rings to her. Suds said there would be no problem and when a young man she didn’t know showed up twenty minutes later with her order plus a side salad that Suds did not even charge her for, she was delighted and gave the deliverer an extra-large tip.

  She sat and began to eat her meal in the Relax and Read section, pouring herself a cup of the coffee that Monica had kept fresh. She kept an eye out for Harve’s car, and when she saw it pull up, she ran to the door and hailed him. He came over to the bookstore, carrying his own takeout from the Rainy Day. He joined Copper in the Relax and Read section after pouring a cup of coffee for himself and settling down with his food.

  “What’s up?” he asked as he unwrapped and took a bite of his super double bacon cheeseburger, with extra bacon and extra cheese.

  “Have you made any progress?” Copper asked, taking another bite from her considerably smaller burger (with no bacon and no cheese). “Mmmm. Suds sure does make good burgers.”

  H
arve nodded in agreement and finished off an onion ring before answering. “Took the car into Vince for an oil and lube this morning,” he said. “In the course of chatting with him while he worked, I brought up the murders. He asked me if I had any suspects, and I told him none that I thought really did it. I asked him if he had any suggestions. He just shrugged and said he could think of lots of people wouldn’t miss Old Mrs. Lafferty but none that would want to do away with Ruby. Admitted to being quite fond of Ruby. I don’t think he did it.”

  “No, he probably didn’t. I do have a few more possible suspects, some a lot more likely than Vince.” She told him of her morning spent with Louise, leaving out the hacking, of course. She merely said that Louise was aware that Agatha had been paying Carol Robert $1,000 every month for many years.

  “Blackmail, we think,” Copper told him, “because Carol knew about Agatha’s affair with Drew Barnes Senior.”

  Harve admitted to being very much surprised, shocked actually, to think that Agatha Lafferty had once had an affair with Drew Barnes Senior. “I guess anything’s possible,” he said. “I know the doc said Cindy looked very much like his mother when she was young, so I guess she was an attractive woman. I don’t remember that much. Young boys try to avoid the library as much as possible, and don’t think about whether or not the librarian is pretty. I would have been really young when Agatha was pretty. I just remember her as being fat. Don’t know about Mrs. Barnes.”

  “She was also a very attractive woman,” Copper said. “I met her quite a few times. What we think may have happened is that when Drew Senior had his heart attack a few weeks ago, he decided maybe he should come clean about his past and told his son about the affair. I’m pretty sure Drew didn’t know about it at the time his parents split. So his father told him, it upset him, and he killed Agatha.”