BATTERED BLUFF

by Beck, Jessica

  What did that mean? Had Vera been blackmailing Abel to get him to cooperate with her? It was looking more and more as though she was the mastermind in trying to get Killian to go back to work.

  I realized that I was running out of time, so I tucked the appointment book in the back of my jeans where no one would be able to see it, and then I kept searching. Maybe there was something else recorded there, but I didn’t have time to uncover it at the moment.

  I finished looking around and realized that I had to go into the bathroom with the body before I ran out of time. I walked in, and it took me a second to realize that I was holding my breath. The air in the room was a bit rancid, there was no doubt about it, but I didn’t plan on staying there long. The toiletries had been lined up neatly on the sink, and Abel’s clothes for the next day were laid out on a chair beside the vanity.

  Nothing looked out of the ordinary there.

  That left the body.

  I knelt down, holding my candle close to him, and studied the corpse. I didn’t check it thoroughly by hand like a coroner or even a cop would have done, but I couldn’t see any signs of trauma anywhere on him. That didn’t mean that he hadn’t been hit from behind, stabbed, or even poisoned, but I didn’t see any indications that his death had been anything more than a heart attack.

  I started to stand when my foot landed on one of the spilled pills that had been dumped out of the bottle in his hand when he’d hit the floor.

  I didn’t think much about it until I looked at a few other pills and realized that they were different somehow.

  That was when I realized that the one I’d nearly stepped on had an H embossed on it, while the one beside it looked pristine. Taking out my hanky, I reached down and flipped the blank pill over, just in case it was printed on one side only.

  That side was blank as well.

  I looked at the H pill again, and then studied the rest of the pills that were scattered across the floor.

  Only three pills had the telltale H.

  The rest, nearly three dozen, were all blank on both sides.

  Had someone monkeyed with Abel’s medication? If so, what he thought he was taking for his heart might indeed just be some kind of harmless placebo. If they had killed him that way, it would be a slow and random form of murder, waiting for him to take the wrong pill when he needed it most.

  But I knew in my heart that it had been murder nonetheless.

  I realized that Jake had wanted to preserve the scene, but I needed evidence when I told him what I’d found, so I scooped up one of the H pills and one of the blank ones so I could show them to him later.

  It was really all that I could do at that point.

  I looked around for another few seconds, and then I realized that my time had run out. I couldn’t afford for Jasper to catch me exploring Abel’s room after we’d made a point of locking both rooms to preserve the scenes for the police.

  I made sure the appointment book was still tucked firmly behind my back, and then I stepped back out into the hallway.

  After locking the door behind me, I was ready to join them in Beatrice’s room when Jasper came out.

  The moment he saw me, his gaze narrowed. “Where were you just now, Suzanne?”

  It amazed me how easily lying to the man came to me once I suspected him of killing his sister. “I thought I could handle seeing her, but when I started to walk in behind you two, I realized that I couldn’t deal with it.” I tried to make myself sound weak and scared, which honestly wasn’t all that difficult to do, given the circumstances.

  “I get it,” Jasper said, looking at me with a hint of sympathy. “I still can’t believe it happened.”

  “Well, there’s no arguing that it did,” Jake said as he closed and locked Beatrice’s door behind us. “You understand that we can’t keep popping into her room whenever you feel like it,” Jake said a bit coolly.

  “I said I was sorry, okay?” Jasper told my husband.

  “What did I miss?” I asked.

  “Jasper decided to rearrange Beatrice’s body,” Jake said.

  “She looked uncomfortable,” he whined.

  I wanted to tell him that she was long past caring about that when Jake spoke up. “I told you when we went in that you couldn’t touch anything. Come on, let’s go down and see the others.”

  Jasper nodded, but not before reaching back and touching Beatrice’s door again, as though she could somehow feel his presence through it. It was an odd way to act, and that was saying something, given what we’d all been through recently.

  As Jasper walked down the steps, Jake told him, “I need a second with my wife.”

  I knew that he wanted to confer with me in private about what I’d found, but I needed to give Jasper an excuse to believe that it was for something else. “I’m sorry. I just need a little comfort from my husband, and I don’t want to get it in front of everyone else.”

  “That makes sense,” Jasper said as he headed down. Before he got to the bottom of the steps he turned and said, “I’ll tell them what’s happening.”

  Great. Now everyone was going to think I was too weak to deal with death, when in reality I had most likely seen more dead bodies than all of them combined, if I didn’t include Jake.

  “Talk to me,” Jake whispered as he hugged me. Whether it was in case someone came up the steps looking for us or to give me actual comfort, I didn’t care. It felt good being in his arms again, safe, though I had no real reason to feel threatened at the moment.

  “I found Abel’s appointment book. He didn’t want to force Killian back to work. Vera did, but she was blackmailing him to do things he didn’t want to do.”

  “What’s your theory, that he finally balked and she gave him a heart attack in retaliation?” He’d said it skeptically, but I nodded in agreement.

  “His pills were scattered on the floor, remember?” I asked.

  “He was going after his medicine. Or wasn’t he?” Jake asked me.

  “Most of them were fake,” I told Jake. “Someone wanted him to take a placebo and die from it.”

  Jake started back up the stairs.

  I held him, though. “Where are you going?”

  “I’ve got to grab that appointment book and some of those pills for evidence,” he said.

  “I’ve got it covered,” I told him.

  “You disturbed what could be a crime scene after I told you not to?” Jake asked me levelly.

  “I had to make an executive decision, so I made it,” I told him, not backing down.

  “Good job, Suzanne. I would have done exactly the same thing in your place.”

  As I handed the key back to him I was about to answer when Killian called out, “Are you two coming back down here, or do we have to come up there?”

  “We’re coming,” Jake said as he took my hand and led me back to the group. I was positive now that we had at least one murderer among us, and maybe even two.

  If we all made it through till dawn without someone else dying, it was going to be a miracle, at least as far as I was concerned.

  Chapter 17

  “WHAT’S GOING ON WITH you two, anyway?” Vera asked us as we rejoined them in front of the fireplace.

  Before I replied, I stopped and grabbed another donut, more out of nervous energy than anything else. “What can I say? I wanted a hug from my husband,” I said.

  She rolled her eyes, but I was determined to let it go.

  Killian wasn’t, though. “Vera, seeking comfort right now is the most sane thing anyone can do. Don’t judge her for it.”

  “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a sign of weakness to need someone else,” she said flatly.

  “Maybe so,” I said, “but if it is, it’s a weakness I’m willing to accept about myself.”

  “I think it shows strength,” Killian said, rising to my defense again. “I wish I’d shown my wife and daughter a bit more vulnerability while I still could.”

  Jake patted his friend’s leg. “You’
ve done the best you can.”

  “Maybe, but my best wasn’t good enough,” Killian said sadly.

  “You might not be able to show your wife that, but there’s still time to show your daughter how you feel about her,” I said.

  “I wish that were true, but I’m afraid it’s not,” Killian said, his voice breaking.

  “Boss, you don’t have to tell anyone else what happened,” Hank said, stepping up and putting a big hand on the man’s shoulder.

  “I don’t know why I’m hiding it. It doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing does,” Killian said. “I got the call in my room just before the power and phone line went out.

  “Leandra died last night.”

  “What? Why didn’t you tell us?” Jake asked him urgently.

  “What good would it have done? She’s gone, and I’m all alone. There’s nothing left for me anymore.”

  Jasper said, “You’ve still got me, Uncle K.”

  It wasn’t much of a consolation prize, as far as I was concerned. But had Jasper known of his cousin’s passing by accident somehow? If he had, it might have given him the impetus to clout his sister on the back of the head and chuck her over the balcony. As far as I’d heard, that would make Jasper the sole heir to Killian’s fortune now, a motive for murder if ever there was one.

  “Thanks,” Killian said, his heart clearly not into it.

  “You knew about this earlier?” I asked Hank.

  “He had to tell someone, and I was nearby at the time,” Hank said. “I’ve known Killian and Leandra from before she even got sick.”

  “I’m sorry I kept it from all of you,” Killian said. “I thought I could keep it all in, but I know now that it was a mistake.”

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” I told our host. That explained the strain I’d seen in his face, though losing his niece at nearly the same time as he’d lost his daughter might have been too much for a normal man to bear.

  “I appreciate it, but I can’t talk about her, not just yet.” Killian stood and headed up the stairs.

  “Where are you going?” Jake asked him.

  “I need to be alone. I’m going to the tower,” he said.

  “I’ll come with you, Boss,” Hank said as he stood.

  “No. I need you to go downstairs and check on the heating system. I’m afraid that battery bank might fail, and then where will we be?”

  “Are you sure?” Hank asked, clearly not wanting to be separated from his boss.

  “I’m positive,” he said.

  The handyman started to leave, as did Killian, when Jake said, “I hate to do this, but we all need to stay together until help gets here.”

  Vera scoffed. “You have no power here. You’re an ex-lawman, remember? I’m going to bed if anyone needs me, but don’t try to get into my room. I may have an aversion to locked doors, but I’ll have an unpleasant surprise under my pillow for anyone who decides to come after me.”

  “Are you honestly armed, Vera?” Killian asked her incredulously.

  “Maybe I am, and maybe I’m not, but a girl has the right to protect herself, doesn’t she?” she asked her former boss.

  “Why shouldn’t we leave the room?” Jasper asked. I hadn’t expected him to be the voice of reason, and it caught me by surprise. “Don’t you trust any of us? We haven’t given you any reason to act the way you’re acting.”

  “I don’t know about that. I can think of a couple right off the top of my head,” Jake said with a frown.

  “Name one,” Vera snapped.

  “As a matter of fact, I can name two. Beatrice and Abel,” Jake answered. He glanced at me and I nodded my approval of him disclosing what we thought. After all, it might be the only way we could keep everyone together without resorting to him pulling his weapon on them.

  “What about them?” Killian asked. “Beatrice killed herself and Abel had another heart attack.”

  “At least that’s what the killer or killers wants the rest of us to think,” I said.

  “Did you honestly just say killers?” Vera asked. “Let me get this straight. Not only do you believe that two murders happened last night, but they might have been committed by two different people? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?”

  “Nevertheless, it’s true,” Jake said, standing.

  “Who killed Beatrice?” Jasper asked as he grabbed my husband’s shirt as though he was going to attack him.

  Jake brushed his grip loose and shoved Jasper backwards onto a chair. “Don’t make me do that again,” he said as Jasper struggled to stand. “I won’t be so gentle next time.”

  “That was gentle?” Vera asked. “You can try to manhandle me too, but I still think your wife is crazy.”

  “Maybe she is, but I agree with her,” Jake said.

  “Surely you aren’t making these accusations wildly,” Killian said. “At least tell us why you think as you do.”

  Jake started to shrug when I spoke up.

  “You might as well tell them. They have a right to know,” I said.

  “Yeah, I suppose that’s true enough.” My husband turned to the others and explained, “Beatrice died from a blow to the back of the head, as far as I can tell.”

  “Falling twenty or thirty feet will do that to you,” Hank replied as he shook his head.

  “If she fell, why was she on her back when she landed and not her face?” Jake asked. “You all saw her. There wasn’t a blemish on her.”

  “Couldn’t she have flipped over onto her back on the way down?” Vera asked.

  “It might be remotely possible, but I don’t think that it’s very likely,” Jake answered. “My guess is that someone hit her from behind, dragged her to the balcony, and then shoved her over the edge.”

  “Who would be strong enough to do such a thing?” Jasper asked. “I certainly couldn’t have done it, and I doubt if Vera could have, either.”

  “I’m stronger than I look,” she protested.

  “Let me get this straight. You want us to think you might have done it?” I asked her.

  “Of course not. The whole thing is crazy. That girl killed herself and we all know it,” Vera answered angrily.

  “I think someone took advantage of her threats to kill herself in the past to make it look as though she finally went through with it,” I said softly.

  “I don’t know. It sounds kind of sketchy to me,” Hank said. “What do you think, Boss?”

  “Right now, I don’t know what to think,” Killian said. “Even if you’re right about Beatrice, that doesn’t explain how Abel was murdered.”

  “Somebody switched his heart medication,” I said.

  “How could you possibly know that?” Jasper asked me.

  “I found these up in his room just now,” I said as I pulled out my hanky and displayed the pills I’d recovered. “I’m betting that his legit meds have an H on them, but most of the pills scattered on the floor up there were blank on both sides.”

  “Who would kill someone that way?” Killian asked me, clearly confused by my explanation.

  “Someone who thought they had some time for one of the placebos to make it to their place at the head of the line,” I answered. “They wanted Abel dead, but they wanted it to look like a random heart attack. The fact that he died around the time Beatrice did was just a coincidence.”

  “You clearly think that Jasper killed his sister...”Vera said as the man leapt off the chair and went for her throat.

  It had caught all of us off guard, except for Hank. To my surprise, he punched Jasper once, knocking him down and out in an instant.

  Jake said, “Thanks for stepping in.”

  “You would have done it yourself if you hadn’t been standing over beside your wife,” Hank said. He then turned to Killian. “Sorry about that, Boss, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t wanted to do that since I met the man.”

  “He is a bit of a weasel, isn’t he?” Killian asked. “But why would he kill his own sister? He was devoted to he
r.”

  “Maybe he wanted to inherit everything from you when you had a ‘misfortunate accident’ later yourself,” Jake said.

  “He’d kill Beatrice and then me, just for money?” Killian asked as he shook his head.

  “Folks have done a lot worse for a great deal less,” Jake said.

  “Well, when he wakes up, he’s going to be in for a surprise,” Killian said. He walked over to one of the tables and grabbed a handy pen and sheet of stationery. After writing a few things down, he called Jake and me over. “I need you two to witness this to make it legal.”

  “What are you doing, writing him out of your will right here and now?” I asked as I glanced at the document.

  “It’s what I threatened to do yesterday after dinner,” Killian admitted. “I don’t want another second to go by before I actually do it.”

  I nodded and took the pen from him. Before I signed my name though, I read it through. “Are you sure about this, Killian?”

  “With Leandra gone, it’s the only thing that makes any sense at all to me anymore.”

  I glanced at Jake, who had read it over my shoulder. He just shrugged, so I signed my name and dated it before handing it to Jake.

  Jake did the same, and then gave it back to Killian. “There you go.”

  “Who did you leave your money to, Killian?” Vera asked. “Did you finally decide to do the right thing by me and leave me everything?” The look of greed in her glance was obvious even in the light being thrown off by the fire.

  “Sorry. You’ve gotten the last dime you’re going to get out of me,” he said.

  She looked disgusted. “If I didn’t get it, then who did?”

  “Hank does,” Killian said as he pointed toward his handyman.

  Chapter 18

  “ME? BOSS, THAT’S CRAZY,” Hank said, clearly stunned by the sudden turn of events. “I don’t want your money. I want you to live forever.” There was no doubt in my mind that the man was completely sincere as he said it.