The Tell Tail Heart

by Cate Conte

I ran my fingers over the smooth orange stone. “Carnelian,” I said. “It’s good for peace and harmony. Cass gave it to me.”

  Leopard Man nodded. “‘I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience,’” he murmured.

  I thought about that one. “Richard III?”

  “Henry VIII,” he said.

  I turned the stone over and over in my hand. “How on earth did you find this? I crawled around out there for a while. The next day.” I glanced up at him. “Everything was gone. Your trailer. Like it wasn’t even there at all.”

  He didn’t answer; instead, he motioned toward JJ on the floor. “May I?”

  I nodded, slipping the stone into my pocket. “Of course. He loves you.” I watched as JJ rolled over and squeaked at him, leaning into his hand for petting. “Thank you for bringing it to me. I’m sorry I spied on you. But that woman…” I trailed off. “How do you know Thea? Or is it Anna?” I held his gaze, a challenge.

  He met it head on, in that quiet but steady way he had. “It’s Thea now,” he said. “Anna is long gone.” There was something in his eyes when he said it, something sad.

  I leaned forward. “What do you mean, long gone?”

  “Anna has been gone for thirty-plus years,” he said. “We shouldn’t talk about her. It’s Thea now.”

  “Like Carl?” I asked, watching his face. “Although a lot of people seem to know you by that name.”

  He didn’t ask how I knew or how I’d found out. He didn’t look particularly surprised or offended by my words, either. He didn’t say anything for a long time. Then he said, “I never wanted people in this life to know me from my last life.”

  I frowned. “What life?”

  He smiled a little. “I moved here in 1977. I had a whole other gig before … this.” He did a Vanna White motion at his long coat.

  So three years before I was born, Leopard Man had started a new life on our island. I had so many questions—about him, Carl, Thea Coleman. I’d been waiting days for a chance to talk to him. Now that he was in front of me, I was not even sure where to start. “Why?” I asked finally. “Why did you come here?”

  “Well,” he said. “It’s a bit of a story. Perhaps I should introduce myself first.” He extended a hand across the small space between us. I reached out and accepted it, noticing how smooth his skin was, how cool his hand was to the touch.

  “My name is Carl Torrence,” he said.

  Chapter 57

  Carl … My eyebrows shot up, my hand going limp in his. “Torrence? Like … the horse family I was just reading about? No. No way. Did you change your name? Was it Joe? Is that why you’re hiding here?” The questions tumbled out of my mouth faster than I could keep up with them, but I was afraid he was going to move to Canada and become Lion Man or something, and I had to know.

  But at the mention of Joe, he shook his head. “Joe was my brother. My oldest brother. He died a long time ago. I was the third son.”

  “Joe was a horse trainer,” I said.

  He nodded. “We all worked with horses. It was the family business. We were all in love with those animals, but for most of my family, it was also about the adrenaline of a race. Of knowing you bred a winner. Of being lauded for your work in the most prestigious circles in the industry.” His eyes dropped to JJ again. “Me and Joe, we just loved horses.” He looked at me again. “I’m presuming you read Mr. Holt’s notes and found out about Koda by now.”

  I nodded. “It’s horrible.”

  “It certainly was,” he agreed. “And my brother never recovered. It’s why he killed himself a few years later.”

  “Oh no.” I covered my mouth with my hand. “I’m so sorry.” I was incredibly sad to hear that. As an animal person, I understood that deep connection to an animal. “So if … Anna killed, or helped kill, Koda, why are you friends with her?”

  Leopard Man frowned. “My dear Maddie, she had nothing to do with it. That awful Krump character got one of her vet assistants to help him, and they tried to put the blame on Anna. It ruined her life. So much so that she fled, too. But it took her an awfully long time to get her life back together. And she had to become a new person to do it.”

  My head was kind of spinning from all this. “So why did you leave?” I asked.

  “Because I couldn’t be part of that life anymore,” he said simply. “We all loved Koda, but we all had a hand in her death by forcing her into that kind of life. I realized it, Anna realized it. Joe knew it, but he stayed, and he got more miserable and withdrawn and finally, he just couldn’t take it anymore. Personally, I realized I needed to get as far away from it as possible. So I left. Came to the East Coast. My family was so angry at me. But I packed up Koda’s trailer and got out. Racing would always be a reminder to me of what we’d done, and what had been lost.” He smiled a little. “And I tried to make up for it by making friends with all the cats I could find.” He gave JJ’s tummy another scratch and glanced at me. “I didn’t want you to think less of me. Your opinion … matters to me.”

  “Thank you,” I said, because it was really all I could think of. I was trying to process everything he was telling me. I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around my quirky, Shakespearean friend being part of a family who raised and trained Thoroughbred horses for racing out west.

  It certainly proved that old adage that you never really knew anyone.

  “Wait. Koda’s trailer,” I said as the light dawned. “Is that what I saw?”

  He nodded a little sheepishly. “That’s where I live. It was one of the fancy trailers back then, with living quarters in addition to the horse stalls. It works for me. I don’t need much space. Or much anything, for that matter. I move it around, too, depending on my mood. I don’t like the same scenery.”

  “Do people know this?” I asked. “Or is it just me who’s been clueless all this time?”

  Now he laughed out loud. “Most people don’t pay attention, Maddie. Your granddad always knew where I lived.”

  And he’d stayed silent about it all these years. I definitely had admiration for my grandpa’s ability to hold people’s secrets close.

  “But how do you get it around?” I asked. “I didn’t think you had a car.”

  “I use an old junker pickup that the gentleman at the salvage yards keeps on hand,” he said. “I only use it when I need to move the house around.”

  Fascinating. There were so many directions to take this conversation. But the most urgent, really, was to Jason Holt’s death and Thea Coleman’s role in it.

  “That’s great,” I said. “But it doesn’t explain why Thea is here at all, why she thinks JJ is her cat, and the fact that she did time for running someone down and now Jason Holt, who was clearly researching this story, gets run over as soon as she comes to town?”

  “Thea and I have been friends all these years,” Leopard Man said. “I kept in touch when no one else did, when she was at her rock bottom and in jail. I was one of the only people from her old life who stuck by her. I helped convince her to go to AA. She’s been coming to visit me out here for years. And she did not kill that poor man,” he said emphatically. “The accident in Arkansas was just that—an accident. She took to drinking after … everything. But she did not kill that writer.” He punctuated each word by drilling his finger on the table between us.

  “But she knew him,” I persisted. “I could see she knew him. When she came to my cafe and tried to take my cat. And he knew her. And I heard … you knew him, too.”

  “She did know him,” he said simply. “So did I. Jason Holt’s father used to bring him to the track for every race. Back in ’77, he was little. But already a writer in his heart. And he was fascinated by the horses. Anna used to let him help her take care of them. Little things that made him feel like he was doing something. In fact, it’s a well-kept secret that Anna used to date Jason’s father. They were very close for a long time.”

  I sat back, trying to take this all in. First, I was fascinated
with this entire conversation. I’d known this man my whole life, basically, and we’d never exchanged so many words. At least, not our own words. Usually Shakespeare’s words, but he was much better at that than I was. And second, what he was telling me was just so crazy. How had this whole sordid cast come to assemble on Daybreak Island?

  “Besides,” he said, answering my unasked question. “She was with me that night. When he died. She’d seen Holt at your cafe and been very upset. She’d left this behind years ago, and she was afraid he was going to dredge it all back up again. I took her for dinner—we were at Moe’s when that poor man was hit—and then I took her to my trailer, and came back to talk to your grandpa. He thought it best I stay at your place that night and avoid any questions until we could sit down and really talk this through.”

  Thea Coleman and Jason’s father. My head was definitely spinning now. I needed coffee. “What happened to Holt’s father?” I asked.

  “He died about ten years ago. Cancer. But after this scandal, Thea fled and never spoke to him again. She thought he would believe the worst about her and didn’t want to give him the chance to do that.” He shook his head. “It was very sad. He loved her. I believe he would’ve stood by her, but she never believed in herself enough to believe it of anyone else.”

  It was sad. We were all so good at screwing things up for ourselves, even things that didn’t ever need to be screwed up. If we all just believed in ourselves a little more, life could turn out differently for so many of us. Maybe that was true for Anna Wakeland. Maybe she’d never have had to become Thea Coleman if she’d just given the people who loved her a chance.

  But something still wasn’t sitting right with me. “So she recognized him at my place. So what? He’s known for spending time here. Why would she know to be suspicious of what he was doing here?”

  “Someone we knew from back then got in touch. Told her Jason Holt had located him and had been asking a lot of questions,” Leopard Man said. “She told me about it before she came to visit. I told her not to worry. That she should just come for her visit and enjoy herself. It’s an old story, and if he did use the material he would fictionalize it. But she was obsessed.”

  “Who told her?” I asked, but I thought I already knew.

  “It was a man who used to work at the track. He helped in the stables with the horses. His name is Dante.”

  The name of the guy in Holt’s notebook. I wondered whose side he was on—Holt’s or Thea’s. “So the whole JJ thing. Was that just a cover for her to come to the cafe and see Holt?”

  He shook his head. “No. She really thinks JJ is hers.” He glanced down at our mutual friend. “But Maddie. I told her JJ belongs with you, and she’s accepted it. You don’t need to worry about her anymore. I imagine it’s been bothering you.”

  Chapter 58

  I sat in my chair for a long time after Leopard Man left, still trying to put all the pieces together in my head. It was a wild story for sure. But it still didn’t explain what happened to Jason Holt. Unless Leopard Man was lying for Thea.

  I didn’t really believe that.

  Or someone else was responsible. Like his wife, after all. Or Zach McConnell. Or both of them. But figuring that out was the trick.

  Then I sat up straight. The ferry passenger lists. I needed to run by the office and get them. It was my last shot at seeing when Lexie and Zach had arrived on the island. If it really was after Holt died.

  It was probably my last chance for any kind of clue. The ferries were back up and running today. Unless they were planning on sticking around for this elusive notebook, if they had anything to do with his death they’d get out of Dodge as soon as they could.

  I snatched up my things and began stuffing them into my bag, suddenly in a hurry, just as Ellen came to the door. “We’re closing up, sweetie,” she said. “Find everything you needed?”

  I nodded. “Yes, thanks. I was just on my way out.”

  “I saw you had some company.” She leaned against the door, her eyes bright with interest. “What was that all about?”

  “Just catching up with an old friend,” I said. “Leopard Man loves JJ. He hadn’t seen him in a few days.” I focused on gathering my stuff together, hoping she wouldn’t ask me any more questions.

  But Ellen wanted to talk. “He’s such a nice man,” she said. “And so smart. I love discussing literature with him.” She moved into the room and hovered over my chair. “Do you think he’s seeing anyone?” I nearly dropped my iPad. “Um,” I managed. “I have no idea, Ellen.”

  “I would love to ask him if he’d like to go to a play sometime. Do you think he would?”

  “I think it doesn’t hurt to ask,” I said solemnly. “I’m sure he’d be very flattered.”

  She beamed. “You’re right. You have to put yourself out there, right? Thank you, Maddie. I’m going to get my courage up next time I see him.” She reached down and rubbed JJ’s ears. “You both have a good rest of your day.”

  I thanked her and hurried out. I needed to tell Becky about all this. I loaded JJ into the car and climbed in, scrolling to her number in my favorites. But when I called her, I got her voicemail. They must be crazy busy, given the storm cleanup news and the murder. I left an urgent message, then sped home. I felt antsy and anxious and wished this whole thing were over, that this whole West Coast contingency would leave my island and let us get back to normal.

  Luckily, Daybreak Harbor had been spared a lot of flooding, at least in our area. The rest of the island hadn’t fared so well, but the storm had finally passed. I made it to the ferry office in five minutes. It was dead in there.

  Rick glanced up as I burst into the office, and grinned, sliding a manila folder containing the printouts over to me. “Here you go.”

  “Thank you so much. I owe you one,” I said.

  He waved me off. “Maybe Val can pay up on your behalf,” he said with a wink.

  Oh, boy. “Thanks again,” I said, and fled.

  Back in the car, I pulled the pages out of the folder and spread them on top of my dashboard, scanning the incoming lists from Friday. Lexie Holt was on the afternoon ferry. There was no record of Zach McConnell’s name.

  I frowned. That made no sense.

  I checked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday just to be sure. Nothing.

  I sat back, drumming my fingers against the steering wheel. When had he arrived? And how?

  My mind bounced between McConnell and Thea Coleman. If she was that obsessed, as Leopard Man said, on Holt not digging up old memories, she could’ve gone to any length to get rid of him. Especially since she’d killed someone using this method before. I mean, Arkansas sounded like an accident, but who knew?

  I grabbed the papers again, searching for her name, starting backwards with Wednesday. It had been a light week. I found her on last Saturday’s afternoon ferry. So she had been here this whole week. I wondered when, exactly, she’d seen Holt here. Was the first time really at my cafe on Wednesday?

  Wednesday. Something about the Wednesday passenger list niggled at the back of my mind. I flipped back over and read through it. There were six names on the morning ferry: Shawn Jacobson. Nick Mariani. Ashton Cowell. Jeffrey Hanzalik. B. D. Lawson. Elvin Adams.

  B. D. Lawson.

  My heart started to pound. I grabbed my phone and did a quick Google search to make sure. Yes, my memory was right.

  B. D. Lawson was Zach McConnell’s pen name. Or maybe it was the other way around, but who cared? The point was, Jason Holt’s co-writer had been here on Wednesday. Maybe McConnell had come here under an alias with the sole purpose of offing his former writing partner. I didn’t know his motive yet, but the answer had to be here somewhere.

  And this could mean Lexie was in danger, too.

  Chapter 59

  I sped home and turned into the driveway before I remembered Grandpa wasn’t home. I muttered a curse. Where was he? I tried calling him. His phone was off—it went straight to voicemail. I nearly threw mine
across the room in frustration. Who turns their phone off at a time like this?

  I took a breath and left a message. “Grandpa. I think Jason Holt’s co-writer killed him. We have to get Ellory to find him before he takes off.” I disconnected and tried Craig. Thankfully, he answered.

  “Meet me at the Surfside in five minutes,” I said.

  “Maddie? What’s going on? I’m tied up with something else. Are you okay?”

  “Yes. No. Look, I think I know what happened to Holt.”

  There was a lot of noise and static on his end of the line. He must be outside. I’d caught a few news clips about storm cleanup and knew there were trees and power lines down around outside of the downtown area, which meant a lot of extra police details as the crews worked. He was probably out doing that.

  “Maddie. You need to sit tight until I’m done,” he said, and I heard the urgency in his voice. “Stop trying to play detective. We have everything under control.”

  “Really? Then why did someone break into my house yesterday? Look, if you don’t want to help me, forget it.” I hung up. I was done with these people who said they had everything under control. If they did, why was Holt’s killer still running around loose?

  I figured Craig would alert the troops anyway, if for no other reason than to try to keep me out of trouble, so I needed to get to the hotel and see if Lexie was still there.

  I went back out to Grandma’s car and pulled out of the driveway, thanking the weather gods for sparing our little area from flooding. I made it to the hotel in less than seven minutes, even driving a little more slowly than usual to avoid water in the road.

  I pulled into the parking lot and immediately saw the black sedan—or at least it looked like the same black sedan—Lexie had been driving when she came to the cafe Saturday in the parking lot. At least she was still here.

  Thankfully, Noelle wasn’t working the front desk. I breezed through the lobby like I belonged there. The woman working barely glanced up from whatever she was doing. I headed for the elevator bank and hit the button for the third floor. Thank goodness Noelle had told Ellory which floor when I’d been here.