“She was at the Play House watching the show with me,” I explained.
“Right. I'd gone to the estate to say goodbye but had missed her.”
“Did you see anyone else at the house?” I needed to know if he'd admit to seeing Brad in the kitchen. If he lied, I thought that could mean he'd been up to something bad like swapping the pills.
“I came in the front door and went directly to my mother's room. I knocked but she didn't answer. I thought I heard her moving around in there, but I didn't want to just walk in. She was a private woman. So, I went downstairs to see if Brad or Mrs. Crawford were around.”
“Were they?” I asked beginning to feel as if I might be about to learn important information.
“Mrs. Crawford was in the kitchen talking to the cook about meals for the upcoming week. Brad came in a few minutes later to say he had to go up to the Play House to bring my mother's medicine.”
“Could Brad have been who you heard in her room?” I asked wondering if Timothy had still been drugged out of his mind that morning. When he shook his head, I asked, “When did you leave for the theater?”
Timothy began to rub his temples. “I offered to drop off the pills for my mother, but Brad said he was in a rush. About an hour later, I guess. Is there a reason for all these questions? Did Brad do something wrong?”
“No, sorry. I didn't mean to alarm you. I was trying to understand the timing.”
Timothy nodded. “I was supposed to check in here at four o' clock. I went to the Play House to catch my mother during the intermission to thank her and to say goodbye. I originally wasn't going to see visitors for a month once I arrived at Second Chance Reflections. I needed to focus on my recovery and to think about my future. But something else happened, and now you showed up today.”
“You looked upset while you were talking to your mother at the theater. What happened?” I asked trying to understand the full picture. I'd ask what he meant about something else happening next.
“She didn't want me to leave until after the show. She wanted to go with me, but I insisted I had to do this on my own. We argued about it, but I told her I'd see her soon. That's when she touched my arm, and I felt the pain from my wound. I pushed her wrist away and told her she had to trust me.”
“And then you came here?” If he and his mother hadn't been on bad terms, there was little chance he'd killed her. It would make no sense, and he didn't appear to be lying to me right now. There was genuine pain and heartache in his demeanor, and if he was truly coming off years of drugs, his body and mind weren't strong enough to create some elaborate ruse for me to believe.
Timothy said he was starting to get tired and needed to be alone. “Before you go, there was a reason I agreed to see you. I need your help based on what happened.”
“Sure, what can I do?” I also wanted to find out if he'd ever been romantically involved with Hannah, but I'd let him ask his favor first.
“Can you give this to Aunt Eustacia? I'm not allowed to send or receive mail from here while I'm going through this early recovery stage. It's a thank you letter. She recently paid my gambling debt for me so that I can start fresh when I finish the program.” He handed me a small envelope from his pocket.
“Of course. She loves you and wants to see you get better,” I said feeling nothing but respect for the cantankerous woman who loved to berate me. She might be difficult at times, but Eustacia was truly an admirable woman. “Before I leave, one more question. Do you recall a young maid that worked at your family's mansion about twenty-five years ago?”
Timothy smiled. “Sure, Hannah. She was only around for less than a year. Why do you ask?”
“I ran into a family member of hers, and he was looking to learn more about Hannah. She died a year ago.” I didn't want to say too much. It'd be better to let Timothy tell me what he knew.
“She was the newest maid right after I started working at Paddington Enterprises. The former one had retired, and my parents accepted the first girl who applied. I still lived at home with them and my grandparents at the time. I didn't know her all that well, to be honest. I probably couldn't help whomever was asking about her.”
“I thought maybe you and Hannah were closer… um… since you were about the same age at the time, you know…” I hesitated to say anything that might upset Timothy, but I needed to know if he could be Brad's father.
“You thought Hannah and I were together?” Timothy laughed for the first time since I'd arrived at Second Chance Reflections. It softened him and showed me he had a possibility for a better future. “No, definitely not. I was too caught up in being the perfect kid. If Father or Grandfather thought I was messing around with one of the family servants, they'd have read me the riot act and punished me for years. I guess that ended up happening anyway, huh?”
If Brad's father wasn't Millard or Timothy, that left Charles or someone else I didn't know about. “I appreciate it. I'll let Hannah's family know. Do you remember who she might have been close with?”
“Not off the top of my head. If I think of anyone, I'll let you know,” Timothy said before shaking my hand and leaving the room.
Although I'd learned a vast amount of information by meeting with him, it only eliminated suspects from my list. I left the rehabilitation facility and went for an hour-long run. After I finished showering and changing, it was lunchtime. I grabbed some food at Braxton's cafeteria and stopped at my office in Diamond Hall to meet with a few students who had questions on an upcoming paper. In between their visits, Maggie and I caught up.
Me: How's the library today?
Maggie: Good. I'm putting the finishing touches on the invitations for the masquerade ball.
Me: For the new building? When is the ball?
Maggie: In May right after graduation. It'll be the first of a series of events to raise money.
Me: Great! Reservations Friday at eight at the new French restaurant on the Finnulia waterfront.
Maggie: I'm looking forward to it. We have lots to talk about. Got a meeting. See you soon.
I put my head on the desk to nap. Luckily Emma would be at a play date after school so I could rest my eyes for a few minutes before going to Nana D's for tea. I had only a few more days to let Francesca know if I was going to come back to Los Angeles. Could I tell Maggie what was going on? Would she be able to help me without any personal feelings getting in the way? With no answers to any of my questions, I forced myself to drive to Danby Landing. I needed the distraction and Nana D would provide the best way to make me feel better—dessert!
Chapter 18
When I arrived, Eustacia and Nana D were setting the table for tea. Nana D had baked a chocolate cheesecake with peanut butter frosting. It looked and smelled so delicious, I could barely stop myself from picking crumbs off the top and sides. Nana D smacked my hand a few times. “Leave it. Wait until the tea is done steeping. Let's talk about Gwennie.”
“Yeah, what have you learned, Kellan? You're not as good of an investigator as your grandmother made you out to be. Why don't I have answers yet?” Eustacia chided me.
After telling them all about my visit with Timothy, Eustacia gave me points for making some progress and confirmed she'd paid his debt. “I can't see my brother, Charles, cheating on Gwennie, but I guess anything's possible,” Eustacia said while slicing into the cheesecake.
“I want to talk about your great nephews and nieces. I haven't been able to get a good reading on them. As far as we know, they could've been included in the new will. Let's pretend for a minute Gwendolyn chose to leave one or more of them the Paddington family fortune.”
“Good idea. What might the little rascal's motives be?” Nana D added while pouring tea into three cups.
“Dana told me Sam was fighting with Gwendolyn about something in the days before she was killed. Anyone know why?” I asked.
“Sam's always been a good boy. Gwennie thought he'd look after her if she ever got too sick. I'm not sure what they could've been fi
ghting about,” Eustacia explained struggling to drink her tea without spilling a few drops on the table. The lack of answers was wearing her down.
“Who's he closest to? Someone needs to ask him, but I don't see it being me. The kid runs away whenever I try to talk to him,” I noted while handing Eustacia a napkin.
“I'll do it,” Nana D said. “I'm good at talking to young guys. They seem to confide in me.”
Nana D had a good point. I spilled my secrets to her in the past. Failing to tell her about Francesca being alive was the only thing I'd ever kept from her, and it was nearly killing me. “Tread lightly. He might be dangerous, we still don't know enough.”
“Gwennie used to complain about Lilly all the time. She got herself into trouble years ago when a friend of hers died in a skiing accident. It was right before her grandfather passed away, but he thought Lilly was capable of pushing her friend down that mountain. Gwennie always thought Charles' grasp on reality was starting to fade near the end. She believed Lilly was difficult, but not pathological. I'm inclined to agree with her on this one.”
“I've seen Lilly be nasty, and she was quite rude to me at the funeral. From what I understand, Lilly believes she's found the money to get her new business started,” I said scooping up my first piece of cheesecake. “This is amazing, Nana D.”
“Of course, it is. Nothing I do is ever short of perfect. Now, about Lilly… I saw her and Brad talking several times in the past few weeks. She seems to like him, but I don't know what they've been talking about,” Nana D said. “It didn't look romantic, but I couldn't say for certain.”
“Lilly and her mother never got along. She blamed her for Richard's frequent disappearances. She's been much better now that Ophelia and her father are back together.”
“Could Richard have loaned her the money? Someone told me he's going to be the new president at Paddington Enterprises,” I asked contemplating how to locate him.
“With Timothy out of the picture in rehab, Richard's the only one left in the family who knows enough about the business. The Board approved him as the new president for a one-year term. He might be investing in Lilly's business. And if that's the case, then she had no reason to kill her grandmother to get the money,” Eustacia said slamming her fist on the table. “Then there's Dana.”
“Yes, she's a handful, too. I've heard a few people talk about the way she chases after guys. There was an incident in the library once, and I suspect that Dana was involved with Arthur in the…” I stopped when I realized my audience. I was telling two seventy-something year old women about the risqué actions of a young girl they knew.
“Well?” Nana D shouted. “Don't leave us hanging. What'd she do?”
“Kellan, my grandniece is a bit of a trollop. I'm aware of her behavior. If you have something to say, out with it,” Eustacia commented before handing me her cup to pour more tea.
“I'm sorry. I wasn't sure how to say it. She's been excessively flirtatious, but my understanding is Arthur initially rejected her advances. Something doesn't add up,” I explained thinking about how Dana was also the one who'd found and ordered the placebos.
“Arthur was outraged with Gwennie. Maybe Dana convinced Gwennie to leave the fortune to her, and she helped Arthur get revenge.”
“Did she realistically have access to swap the pills with cocaine the morning Gwennie died?” Nana D asked tapping her fingers on the table.
“Dana was with us at the theater, not at brunch at the mansion. She lives on campus, right?” I said. “Could she have come home to the estate on Sunday morning to steal her grandmother's medicine, swap it with cocaine, and return to the theater without anyone knowing?”
“Probably not, but that's where Arthur could've helped out,” Eustacia said.
“I'll ask Myriam. I'm certain Arthur couldn't have left Paddington's Play House before or during the dress rehearsal. He was running the place and had way too much to do,” I explained.
“I'll ask Bertha if Dana was around at all over the weekend. You find out from Myriam,” Nana D instructed. She began cleaning up the plates while we were talking. “You know what you have to do, Kellan.”
Me? What was she talking about? “Umm, what did you have in mind?”
In unison, Eustacia and Nana D shouted, “The sheriff, Kellan. Go see the sheriff.”
Although April Montague had softened the last time we'd chatted, I didn't think she'd share any important news about the case with me. I did need to update her on my discussion with Millard about his non-intimate relationship with Hannah, but was that going to help any? “Fine, I'll take one for the team again. But I'm not gonna like it.”
“That's life, Kellan. At least until you reach our age,” Eustacia scoffed.
“And then you can make everyone else do the real work!” Nana D added with a high-five in Eustacia's direction.
After Nana D's, I picked Emma up from her play date. In the car ride home, we told each other about our days. I left out the part about the murder investigation, although part of me wondered if she might have an interesting take on the possible culprit. Children often weeded out the extraneous information and pointed out the one thing you'd missed all along. Should I try?
I was considering it when my father's name appeared on my cell phone as we pulled onto their street. “Hey, Dad. What's going on?”
“You have a visitor. I thought you might want to return home as soon as you could,” he said in the same way he used to nudge me to come home for dinner more often to see my mother while I was in college. I pulled up in front of the house.
Given the motorcycle parked in the Royal Chic-Shack's driveway and my dumb luck, it was probably the sheriff. For a really long moment where even Emma had to remind me I was still on the phone, I considered passing the house as if I'd never been there. That's when I heard the knock on the passenger's side window and hung up the phone.
“Daddy, some lady cop is here to see you. And she looks angry. Or like she swallowed a bunch of nasty lima beans. Ewww!!!” Emma squealed in a high-pitched voice.
“Just don't look into her eyes, baby girl. She's not a real cop. She's a mean demon, and you don't want to get on her bad side, okay? Pretend you don't see her and back slowly into the house like you're scared of her. She'll ignore you.” I muttered while smiling at the sheriff through the closed window. Before getting out of my own seat, I reached around to unlock Emma's seatbelt and told her to rush inside to see Grandpa. After shutting the car door, Emma decided not to follow my instructions and instead marched toward the sheriff. “Can I see your badge? My dad said you're a fake cop, but I don't believe him. You look like a real one. Just a mean one. Did you eat something bad just now? Cause your face looks like it. Are you trying to hide your monster fangs? I'm confused, but I'll sort this out.”
April looked from Emma to me. I could guess what was on her mind by the subsequent twitches in the corners of her lips. She was awful at hiding her feelings. “Kids. They say the strangest things, huh?” I said shrugging my shoulders and pointing toward the house. “Inside Emma.”
“But Dad, if she's truly a monster, I'll wave a magic spell on her and send her far away. And she didn't answer my question. That's rude!” Emma threw her hands to her hips and stared at the sheriff. “My friend Shalini at school says boys pick on you when they want you to be their girlfriend. Are you mean to my daddy because you want to be his girlfriend?”
April's eyes opened so wide she looked like she'd stuck her finger in an electric socket. “Is she for real, Little Ayrwick? Did you rent a smaller version of yourself for the day?”
I had no choice but to introduce Emma to April. “She's six and sometimes doesn't know when to keep her mouth closed. I'm not really sure what my daughter's saying half the time.”
“I can see the resemblance,” April said to me, then turned to Emma. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Emma. I'm not a monster, but I am a real cop. I might've looked a little angry because your daddy was supposed to call me earlier to
tell me something important. He was also not supposed to talk to anyone else about it. For some reason, he seems to have forgotten what we discussed recently. I'm a stickler for rules, and I expect others to follow them.”
“I like rules, too. Daddy's forgetful sometimes. I think it's because he does too much. I guess you wouldn't want to be his girlfriend. He'd probably forget your birthday. Although, he's never forgot mine. I wonder if he needs a girlfriend to help keep him in line. That's what Nana D told me the other day,” Emma announced walking toward the house to see my father.
“I think you've got your hands full with that one, Kellan,” the sheriff noted.
“Kellan? I think that's the only time you've called me by my first name.” I made a mental note to read my nana the riot act for saying something about getting a girlfriend in front of Emma.
“Yeah, well… based on what you're dealing with between your nana and your daughter, I might be able to take it easy on you from time to time. I certainly don't want to be the one to cause your complete and utter breakdown,” the sheriff said while pulling out her notepad. “As for the revealing comments you apparently shared about me in front of your daughter, at least I know where we stand. And to think I was going to try to be a little more forthcoming with you in the future.”
“Perhaps there might have been a wee bit of exaggeration. Can you honestly tell me you haven't said something equally controversial about me? Surely, Connor's been a good sounding board at some point in the past. I've seen the way you look…” I said with enough sarcasm to prove my point but was stopped mid-sentence.
“Let's move on. Neither one of us want to have that discussion. So, what did you find out from Timothy? I feel the need to remind you that you were only supposed to discuss Hannah with Millard. I'm not at all sure how you thought you had approval to hunt down Timothy. I was only joking when I told you where he was and that you could check for yourself.” Sheriff Montage walked toward the garage to avoid the chilled wind whipping by us.
Broken Heart Attack Page 20
