If she did kill my grandmother, Teagan thought, at least she’s remorseful now.
Teagan narrowed his eyes and looked at her. “Cost her her life?” Teagan asked. “How? What do you know about the murder?” he asked.
“What?” she said jerking her head up. She looked him directly in his eyes. “What do you mean, ‘what do I know?’ There wasn’t a murder.”
“I understand you were quite angry with her that night, Ms. Avery. You ‘hated’ her,” Teagan said remembering her venomous words.
“Who told you that?” Rose said spitting out the words, her brows knitted together.
“It’s true isn’t it?” he asked, his voice staying calm. “You were angry enough with her to want revenge. To get revenge.”
“That may be true, but I’ve made amends for what I did,” she said, her voice low and angry. “And I don’t know why anyone would tell you something – anything that would give you the impression I could’ve kill her.” She shook her head and bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. “I don’t know who it could have been. Surely not your father.”
“My father?” Teagan said, the wheels churning in his mind “Is that why he asked the detective to look into the murder. He suspected you did it.”
“What?” Rose said and popped up from her seat. “What are you talking about?”
Teagan stood up and faced her. “What did you do to my grandmother that night, Rose? Did you kill her?”
“No!” She said and glared into his eyes. “I would never . . . I couldn’t ever.”
“Then what did you do? Why did you need to make amends?” Teagan took a step toward her. “It’s done now,” he said in a hushed whisper, recalling her words. “Wasn’t that what you said? What was it that you’d done, Rose? Was it you, in your anger, who murdered my grandmother?” Teagan’s rage started to ramp up. Twice he hadn’t been there for his grandmother, and he realized now, if he let this go, he’d be failing her again.
“I didn’t kill anyone!” Rose took in a few quick breaths and tried to calm herself. “Not on purpose.” She hung her head and fiddled with her fingers.
“Not on purpose?” Teagan said, his fists balled. “You did kill my grandmother.” He took another step toward her and leaned in, now his face nearly touching hers. “You pushed that rack over on her.”
“I did no such thing!” Rose said. “And I think you need to get out of my house! This is madness!” She looked at him and pointed a finger. “You’re crazy!”
Teagan stood and stared at her, her face flushed, her eyes dark with anger, and he could feel resentment for this woman that he barely knew form a knot in his stomach.
Meow . . .
Teagan tilted his head and listened.
“Did you hear me?” Rose screeched. “I want you out of my house.” She marched to the door, swung it open and stood there, holding it open.
“Do you have a cat?”
“A cat?” Rose took in a breath. “What are you talking about? I think you should leave.”
“Do you have a cat?” he asked again walking over to her.
“No. I don’t,” she said.
“Did you hear one?” he asked, his frantic behavior dissipating. “Did you hear the cat?”
“No. I only heard you accusing me of murdering someone who wasn’t murdered.”
“I’m sorry. Okay?” Teagan grabbed the door knob and gently pulled it away from Rose and closed the door. He knew those sisters, or their cats, if they weren’t one and the same, was somewhere close. He took that to mean he was on the right track.
The right track to fixing his grandmother’s “watch.”
“So let’s just talk,” Teagan said and touched Rose’s arm, but she pulled away. “I just want to know what happened that night.”
“You shouldn’t come into people’s homes and accuse them of murder.”
He shook his head and closed his eyes momentarily. “I know,” he shrugged. “I know.”
“And I don’t know what I could tell you about her . . . About the accident other than what I told your father when I returned the brooch.”
“Returned the brooch?”
“Yes. I gave it back to him. I couldn’t keep it.”
“What? Why did you have my grandmother’s brooch? How did you get it?”
“She took her jacket off and put it in the kitchen office. The brooch was pinned to it.”
“The office where you made the phone call.”
She squinted her eyes and looked at him. “How do you know I was in there?”
“My father told me.”
“Your father?” Rose laugh, a hoarseness in her voice like she’d spent years smoking. “I don’t think I ever told him that.”
“Well what did you say when you returned it to him?” Teagan didn’t want to veer off track again, he needed whatever information she had.
“Just that I was sorry.”
“I don’t understand,” Teagan said.
“She took that jacket off because I’d bumped into her and spilled a whole tray of hors d’oeuvres on it.” Rose folded her arms across her torso. “So Mrs. Bales was already upset about that, and then she found out that I was the one that brought that 1914 bottle of wine upstairs.”
“She didn’t know that you were the one that brought the bottle of wine upstairs.”
“She had to have known,” Rose said. “It was just one more thing that grated her ire with me. Then, me turning over that case of wine was the last straw. That’s why she had Viktor fire me.”
“Viktor Gustov fired you?”
“Yes.”
“But he didn’t want to fire you for that, I heard him . . .” Teagan looked up at her. “Wait. Did you say you turned over a case of wine?”
“Yes. The wine for dinner. It was sitting on the edge-”
“On the edge of the counter,” Teagan finished her sentence. “But my Uncle Teddy turned that case over,” Teagan said interrupting her.
“Who?” Rose asked.
“Teddy Abrams.”
“I don’t know him. But I dropped the case that night. Unless another case was dropped later.” She shrugged. “Then Viktor fired me, right on the spot. He didn’t even give me a chance to say anything, I think he was angry because he’d cut his hand.”
“Wait,” Teagan said confused. “Gustov cut his hand, too?”
“Who else cut their hand?” Rose asked.
“Teddy Abrams.”
“Oh, the man you asked me about?”
“Yes. Well, like I told you, I don’t know anything about him. All I know he got mad when he tried to catch the bottle and it cut him. It was just a small cut. But that didn’t matter, he just told me I was done and went off in a huff to find someone to help him clean up the spill. I got so angry.” Her eyes drifted off remembering the incident. “I knew the office was off limits, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was I didn’t have a job, and no money coming in. I wouldn’t be able to pay my mortgage.” She looked around her house. “I went in there to vent. I called my husband and then I spotted her jacket with the brooch. I don’t know what came over me, I just took it.”
“It’s done now?” Teagan repeated her words from that night.
“What?” she said.
“Nothing,” he said. “Go on.”
“That’s it really. I don’t know what I thought I was going to do with it. I couldn’t pawn it. I didn’t know anything about trying to sell it, and then I felt so bad when I found out she’d died that night putting that bottle of wine back.”
“So what did you do?”
“I told you, I returned it to your father.” She hunched her shoulders. “I gave it back”
“You made amends.”
She nodded her head. “I tried to make amends.”
Teagan leaned back on the couch and looked at Rose. “I always thought that brooch was with her things that the morgue returned to my father.”
“Is that what he told you? Because it wasn’t.
”
“No. He didn’t tell me that. I just assumed.” Teagan pulled in a breath through his nostrils. “I’m sorry about what happened to you that night,” Teagan said and stood up to leave.
“I’ve recovered from what happened to me,” Rose said and waved her arm around the room. “I’m just sorry your grandmother couldn’t.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
As you may have guessed, Tegan didn’t have anywhere else to go. He’d run out of leads, and as such, ideas on how to prove someone had killed his grandmother.
He stood on Rose Avery’s porch after she had closed the door. What had all the things he found out meant? Did they mean anything?
He’d been there and he hadn’t seen anyone go down in that cellar. Something had stopped his grandmother from going upstairs to change. And when did she pick up that bottle of 1914 Chateau Haut-Brion? He saw her give it to Gustov and leave the kitchen.
He should have stuck by her and not take another route to the front of the house.
All his life he’d thought himself extraordinary. Now he felt humbled. His grandmother’s death had affected a lot of people, but those people had moved on. He hadn’t.
Teagan looked up and down her street. An ordinary street with ordinary people. Something his life was not.
I can be ordinary, though, he thought.
Maybe the lesson he was to learn hadn’t been that his grandmother’s accident was something more, but that as Calayiah said he needed to be fixed.
In less than twenty-four hours, he’d learned more of the truth about the night his grandmother died, then he had in the twenty something years she’d been gone.
And he learned about himself.
He was cold. Calculating. He was nothing like the promise of a man that gleamed in his grandmother’s eye when she looked at him or when she spoke about him to others.
And perhaps he could make a change.
He had enjoyed talking with Caroline. He’d found a connection with her and it wasn’t about anything other than her company.
Teagan walked down to his car and got inside. He put the key in the ignition but didn’t start the engine.
A tear rolled down his cheek.
I don’t even know why I’m upset, he thought.
Was it because he had let his grandmother down, not solving her murder?
A murder that no one but he and his father believed happened.
Oh, and Caroline. Teagan smiled at the thought.
Or, if he’d let her down by not being who she wanted him to be.
What was his life? All work. No friends.
Yes, he decided. He’d make a change.
He turned the key with a new found purpose. But before he could pull off, his phone rang and beeped a notification of a text message at the same time.
“Caroline,” he said swiping the green “Accept” button on his phone.
“Detective Tony Camarary called you. He said he had something for you.”
“Did he say what?” Teagan asked.
“No, he didn’t.”
“Okay, I need his number.”
“I’ve already texted to you,” Caroline said. Then there was a hesitation in her voice. “How has your day been going so far?”
“I just spoke to Rose Avery. Talked to the contractor, Pastor Tim and Gustov.”
“Have you found out anything?” she asked.
“Oh, I’ve found out a lot of things. I just don’t know what to do with any of it. Or, what any of it means.”
“Does any of it point to a murderer?”
“I don’t know, Caroline. But even if it does, I don’t know who. I don’t know why. And I’m clean out of following any leads. I wish Uncle Teddy was here. He could help me figure this out.”
“I’m sure you can figure it out,” Caroline said. “If you’d like, we can talk more about it when you get back.”
“Maybe,” Teagan said and sighed. “I’m going to call Tony back and see what he has for me.”
But Teagan wasn’t able to reach Detective Tony Camarary. His call had gone straight to voicemail. Whatever he had for him would have to wait, Teagan was going to head home and try to wrap his head around all the things he’d learned.
Chapter Twenty-Five
He looked through the folder, the paperwork inside scarce, which was natural Detective Camarary explained, since the investigation had been short. And from what Teagan felt, incomplete. There were pictures. The body. The room. But Teagan turned them over quickly, not even glancing at them.
I know what the place looked like that night.
Then he noticed the inventory of his grandmother’s belongings that was on her that night.
Detective Tony Camarary had come through for him, and with a lack of sleep the second night in a row, Teagan was up bright and early hoping that the information he had for him would help. But Teagan knew him meeting up with the detective would have to wait. He’d skipped out on work the day before and he had to spend most of the day catching up. It was hard. All day, a ball of anticipation jumped around in his stomach.
But when Teagan was finally able to meet up with the police detective, Teagan found that it wasn’t really information he had for him, just a copy of the case folder. Inside were statements from the people he’d already talked to, only, he noticed, he had gleaned a lot more details from them than what the police had. Still, Teagan felt the folder was a fresh start. And if nothing else came of it, he thought as he flipped through it, his Uncle Teagan would be back any minute and he’d be able to speak with him.
As Teagan looked over the inventory list, he thought back to the conversation he’d had with Rose Avery. He’d always thought the brooch had been in the things his father got from the police.
Why hadn’t my father ever told me?
He ran his finger down the list giving it a cursory review. A greenish-blue evening gown. Undergarment, including stockings and bra. One pair of silver pumps. Diamond earrings. Diamond tennis bracelet. A diamond wedding set. A single, loose diamond.
That evening gown had to have been torn and filled with blood, Teagan thought. Why would they return such a thing?
He looked at the list again. “Where are all these things?” He said aloud. “Why didn’t my father give them all to me?”
He picked up the phone and called Caroline. “Where do we keep my grandmother’s personal things?” he asked as soon as she picked up the phone.
“Her personal things?” Caroline was surprised at the question. “We . . . You don’t have any of her personal things.”
“Why don’t we have any of them?”
“As far as I know,” Caroline said. “Your father disposed of those things long before I came aboard.”
“So the brooch is the only thing I have of hers.”
“Oh,” Caroline said and got quiet for a minute. “Do you mean the things in the safe deposit box?”
“I have one of those?”
“Yes, and it contains the things from your father’s estate. His lawyer kept them until a few years ago when he was retiring, remember? He asked if you wanted the firm to take care of them.”
“What did I say?”
“You said no,” Caroline said. “You said that I would take care of it.”
“And did you?”
“I did.”
“Why don’t I know these things?”
“You never wanted to know. Just wanted it all kept in a file so you’d have access to it if you ever had the need.”
“Did I say that?”
“Almost verbatim.”
Teagan blew out a breath. “Okay. So I have a safe deposit box.”
“Yes you do.”
“And it has my father’s things in it.”
“Personal items like jewelry. Marriage certificate. Yes it does.”
“What about my grandmother?”
“It has some of her jewelry in it as well.”
Teagan looked down at his watch. “Can I get in and see this stuff to
day?”
“Uhm, yes,” Caroline said looking down at the time on her iPad. “They close at four. You should be able to make it.”
“I need-”
“The directions,” she cut him off and finished his sentence. “I know. I’ll text them to you. You have the hang of that GPS in your car?”
“Sort of,” Teagan said. “It took me a minute. But I think I can do it again.” Teagan paused momentarily. “Caroline.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sir.”
ͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼͽͼ
Teagan, police folder tucked under his arm, turned the key with the bank manager and stood back as the manager pulled out the safe deposit box from its wall slot.
The bank manager pointed to the table and stool, then placed the box in front of Teagan. “Let me know if you need anything else.” He left Teagan alone in the room.
Teagan sat down on the stool, placed the police file on the table, and slowly opened the box. Perusing the contents, he saw three of his father’s watches, his wedding band and his mother’s bridal set. He spotted a paper in the corner, picking it up, he found that it was a withered marriage certificate. Unfolding it, he turned it gently in his hands and read the names. Stuart Bales and Kathryn James. His parents.
My father never stopped caring about her.
He placed it back down into the box. Then he picked up a plastic bag. He could see through it, and before opening knew that it contained women’s jewelry. And a piece of paper. He opened the bag and pulled the paper out. It was a carbon copy of the inventory list he had seen in his grandmother’s police file.
A greenish-blue evening gown. Undergarment, including stockings and bra. One pair of silver pumps. Diamond earrings. Diamond tennis bracelet. A diamond wedding set. And a single, loose diamond, approx. 39 pts.
The clothes missing, he gently eased the rest of the contents out onto the table. He picked them up one-by-one, studying each piece, a tear running down his cheek.
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