The Deadly Art of Love and Murder

by Linda Crowder

  “Permafrost?”

  “Not this far south, but that’s a good guess. The ground they picked a billion years ago for the cemetery is the rockiest place on the bay. They have to haul out the heavy equipment.”

  “I should make arrangements to cover the costs.”

  “I think Mr. Clarke has taken care of that already, but we can stop by City Hall to double check.”

  “Sounds good. I also want to take a look at the clinic and go over the house to see how much work it will need.”

  The bell on the front door chimed as Dan came in. I went into the kitchen to make up a plate for him but Bent shooed me out. “I know what your boyfriend wants, little sister.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  I went back into the dining room. “Morning, Dan. I see you’ve got your coffee.” He held his mug up to salute me and I set a plate of frittata and diner fries in front of him. I pulled the church key from my pocket and tossed it to him.

  “Everything look okay for the service?” he asked Olivia.

  She frowned. “I understand the coffin being closed for the funeral, but I wanted to see Gram. It’s hard to say goodbye to a pine box.”

  “Did your attorney tell you how Mrs. Nash died?” asked Dan. “It’s not pretty.”

  “I’m a doctor. I’m just finishing my rotation in the emergency room of a major metropolitan area. I assure you, I’ve seen some pretty horrific things.”

  “It’s not the same when it’s family.”

  “Why don’t we start with the house?” I suggested. “I haven’t had a chance to clean up the living room. If seeing that doesn’t bother you, I’m sure we can unseal the coffin and give you time alone with your grandmother.”

  “Give me a call when you know and I can head over there and take care of that for you.”

  “That sounds fine.” Olivia put her fork down. “That was the best breakfast I’ve had in years.”

  “You’ve probably been eating most of your meals in a hospital cafeteria,” I said, getting up to bus the table. “Dan, you want anything else while I’m in the kitchen?”

  “Nope, just leave the coffee pot on.”

  I turned to the other diners, “I’m heading out. Anyone need anything before I go?” No one did, so I went into the kitchen and put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Bent had finished the order he’d been working on and I reached for it. Mel was sitting on a stool, watching him wash dishes. “Olivia and I are going to take a look at the Tilamu house, then head over so she can see the clinic. Want to come?”

  Mel looked uncertain. “I still have so much to do.”

  “Like what? There’s hardly anybody here and Dan can look after himself. It’d do you good to get out in the fresh air. Besides,” I lowered my voice, “Olivia’s thinking about moving to Coho Bay and I’d rather have you than Mom helping me tilt her in our direction.”

  “Well, when you put it that way.” Mel beamed at me and hopped off the stool. “Bent, I’ll be with Cara if you need me.”

  “Okay, hon. Have fun.”

  “You two look like you’re up to something,” Dan commented.

  “Just getting some fresh air,” I said, dropping the plate of eggs off for the person who’d ordered them. “I’ll call you when we need you.”

  “Oh, it feels wonderful to be outside again,” said Mel as we hit the boardwalk. She threw out her arms and spun around. “Just smell that air.”

  “We don’t let her out very often,” I said to Olivia. Mel gave me a playful shove and we set off up the boardwalk.

  “I’d like to know the history of the house,” said Olivia. “Gram didn’t tell me very much.”

  “Doc Tilamu built it for his wife when he got back from med school.”

  “Doc was a local?

  “Born and raised,” said Mel. “So was Mrs. T. They got married while he was still in school because they couldn’t bear to be parted after him being away so long during the war. That’s when they met your grandparents. Doc went to school with your grandfather.”

  “Did they help build the house?”

  “They didn’t start coming out until Doc’s kids had grown up and gone. Isn’t that right, Mel?”

  “Yep. Doc had three children, two girls and a boy. They were restless to see the world and once they left Coho Bay, they never came back.”

  “That’s normal for small towns, isn’t it.”

  “A lot of our kids do move away,” I agreed. “Although now that we have the cruise ships, more of them are able to find work here so more are choosing to stay.”

  “What kind of work?”

  “Some opened shops, like I did. Others take cruisers on tours, boat tours and walking tours, fishing. That’s what Frank was doing before Jack asked him to take over the lumber mill.”

  “Sounds like you’re a town full of entrepreneurs.”

  “Stubborn is more like it,” laughed Mel. “Nobody wants to take orders from a boss.”

  “You and Bent run the restaurant all by yourselves?”

  “For the most part. At the height of the season––June through August––we bring a college kid in to work for the summer, but otherwise, we’re a two person operation. Cara gets art students to come down for the summer to help in the gallery, so sometimes she’ll slip away on a really busy day to help me with the lunch rush and she’s always there in the morning to help get breakfast started.”

  “I have to earn all those meals Bent gives me.”

  “What are you going to do when the baby comes?”

  “Make a place for her, or him, in the kitchen. Carry the baby around on one of those slings while I’m waiting tables. I might get more tips that way.” She smiled, her thoughts a mile away. “Once he or she starts running around, that’s when it’ll get complicated. Maybe Cara can watch her for me.”

  “She’ll be better off in the dining room than running around in the gallery. Can you imagine? Knocking over sculptures and putting sticky fingerprints on the paintings?” I shuddered. “I am never having kids.”

  Olivia laughed at me. “You may feel differently about that someday soon.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “You looked pretty chummy with Frank down by the peer this morning.”

  “I knew somebody was watching us! I had that creepy-crawly feeling.”

  “I don’t think that was the only feeling you were having.”

  “Did I miss an ooey-gooey love scene? Sis, you’re holding out on me.”

  We’d reached City Hall and I practically lunged at the door. “C’mon, Olivia. Let’s ask Tammy about those funeral costs.”

  “You can change the subject now, but you are going to tell me everything,” said Mel, following me inside.

  “Everything about what, girls?” asked Tammy brightly.

  I knew better than to put juicy information in front of Tammy. “About Mrs. Nash’s funeral expenses, Tammy. This is Dr. Olivia Jordan, her granddaughter.”

  “Glad to meet you, honey. I’m sorry about your loss.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. Tammy, is it?”

  “Sure thing, and everybody calls me that, so don’t you trouble yourself with that ma’am stuff. What would you like to know?”

  “I want to settle the costs.”

  “There’s nothing to settle. That nice lawyer fellow in Arizona told me to fax him the bills, ‘cause your grandmother pre-paid for everything.”

  Olivia raised her eyebrows. “When did she do that? Right before she... died?”

  “Not at all, sugar. Dan asked me that too. Sometimes somebody comes in here and buys a plot and I tell him, you’d better go check on so and so, cuz it ain’t like them to be thinking about the hereafter all of a sudden, but that wasn’t your grandma.” Tammy reached behind her and pulled a binder off the shelf, thumbing through the pages. Finding the one she wanted, she read from it. “She came in with Doc Tilamu when he was layin’ his poor wife to rest. Poor woman suffered so much from the cancer. It was a real bles
sin’ when she died.”

  “She bought a plot for herself and her husband way back then?” I turned to Olivia. “I wonder why she didn’t have him buried here when he died.”

  “She didn’t buy one for him,” said Tammy, looking up from the binder. “She said he had a family plot back home, but she weren’t too fond of his family. Said she’d rather be laid to rest up here so Doc said to put her next to the place he was gettin’ for himself and his wife. That’s what we did and that’s the spot where they’ll be layin’ her to rest tomorrow, poor soul.”

  “Over my dead body.” All heads turned to see a middle-aged man, his face flaccid around the edges and his waist bulging over the belt he’d hitched at least one too spots too tight.

  There was something familiar about him. “Alexander Tilamu, mind your manners. You got no call to be talking like that to Mrs. Nash’s granddaughter. What did you say your name was again, honey?”

  “Olivia.” She held out her hand to him, but he made no move to take it.

  “Dr. Tilamu was my father. He built that house for my mother and for me and my sisters. I’m not letting you steal it from us and I’m sure as hell not letting them bury that witch next to anywhere near my mother.”

  “That plot is bought and paid for, Alex Tilamu,” said Tammy. “You ain’t got nothin’ to say about it.”

  “Alex,” I said, moving to stand between him and Tammy. He blinked and re-focused his eyes on me. I wondered how much he’d had to drink. “I went to Juneau myself and pulled the land records. Doc transferred title to the property to Mrs. Nash years ago. Nobody knew about it, but I can give you a copy of the records.”

  “I don’t care what the records show. That house is mine!” He stepped around me and put his finger a few inches from Olivia’s face. “I’ll see you in court.” He spun around, losing his balance but he managed to right himself before he fell. Straightening his back, he marched out and headed toward the dock.

  “That was pleasant,” said Olivia when he’d gone.

  “I’m so sorry,” I told her, my breath slowly returning to normal after the unpleasant confrontation. “I had no idea Alex was in town.”

  “Is he always so charming?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never met him. When I’ve spoken with him on the phone, he’s been polite. You must have known him, Tammy.”

  “He looks like a bad imitation of his daddy at that age. Came busting in here first thing this morning, demanding to talk to Dan. When I told him he wasn’t here, he asked for Clem, but he wasn’t here either. I told him to come back later. He must have been killing his time in a bottle.”

  “I’m sorry, Olivia. He was way out of line.”

  “I had no idea he thought he owned the house. It must have come as quite a shock.”

  “It was a shock to everybody. Mrs. Nash paid rent for years as though they were the owners and here all along, she was. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Olivia shrugged. “Maybe she felt sorry for them. Gram told me she’d changed her will after I came back into her life. Maybe she had been planning to leave the house to them, but changed her mind. I hate to deprive him and his sisters of something they’ve been counting on all these years. Maybe I should just give it to them. I have her townhouse in Arizona, after all.”

  “You’re not depriving them of anything,” said Mel. “That house is a disaster.”

  “It’s a disaster because they wouldn’t pay to maintain it,” I pointed out. “Maybe they knew all along the house wasn’t theirs and he’s just making a big stink about it, hoping to guilt you into giving it back.”

  “Long way to come for that. How’d he even know she’d be here?” asked Mel.

  “He didn’t,” supplied Tammy. “He was lookin’ for Dan, not Doc Olivia.”

  “Where does he live?” asked Olivia.

  “Tacoma,” I answered.

  “I thought he was in D.C.”

  “One of his sisters lives in D.C. The older one. I can’t remember what she does, it’s been so long since I’ve spoken with her. His other sister lives in Montana, I think. Her husband has something to do with the oil business.”

  “Tacoma’s still a long way just to come just to throw a fit, Cara.”

  “Well how should I know why Alex does what he does? I don’t even know the guy.”

  “Let’s go take a look at the house,” said Olivia. “I want to see what he’s so upset about.”

  I WALKED OLIVIA THROUGH the house, showing her the work that absolutely had to be done and pointing out things I thought should be done if she were going to be comfortable there. She’d stood a long time in the living room with its tell-tale stains and we were now standing on the back patio with Mel, who’d decided not to go with us on the tour.

  “Tell me how you found her.” Olivia’s expression was grim, but determined. “I need to know.”

  I told her, leaving out as much of the gore as I could, trying to remember other details. “I’m sorry, that’s as much as I can tell you,” I finished. “I was a little freaked out.”

  “She was screaming like a banshee,” said Mel.

  “At least I was moving,” I countered. “You would have fainted.”

  “I would not.”

  “Oh no? You remember that moose carcass we came across in the woods? The one we got away from as fast as we could because it looked like a fresh kill and we didn’t want to be dessert?”

  “I didn’t faint.”

  “Until we got home.”

  “Ladies,” said Olivia breaking in, “it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You should have seen me the first time they brought a GSW into the ER. I bet I was whiter than either one of you.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Mel. “It’s very disrespectful of what you’re going through.”

  “Humor makes the heart heal faster,” she said. She looked out over the bay. “It’s a ton of work, but it might be worth it to have this view.”

  “I’m working on an appraisal for Mr. Clarke. The real value of this property is the land. I’ve already had a developer call me asking about it. I don’t even know how he knew it might come on the market.”

  “What would he do with the house?”

  “Tear it down and build something bigger, fancier, full of glass and stainless steel,” said Mel.

  Olivia smiled at her. “Tell me how you really feel, Mel.”

  “I’m sorry. I have nothing against new and shiny and I suppose if this were my land and I had the money to do it, with no emotional attachment to the house, I’d probably tear it down and start over. It’s been neglected too long.”

  “It’s a project, that’s for sure.” She looked out at the water, where the weekly ferry from Juneau had just pulled up anchor. I hoped Alex was on it. “Could it be made livable in time for me to move in next summer?”

  “Are you going to move to Coho Bay?” Mel tried to keep the excitement out of her voice.

  “I’d like to have it as a vacation home, if nothing else. I’m afraid I’ll miss the arrival of your little one though. I have to finish my residency.”

  “Well, let’s go take a look at the clinic,” I suggested, “and trust me, if you decide to move here, my mother will move Heaven and Earth to get the house ready for you in time.”

  WE WERE STANDING IN one of the clinic’s empty exam rooms when my phone beeped. “It’s Bent,” I said. “They’re ready to go. Are you interested in riding out to the cabins, Olivia?”

  “I’d love to. You know, this clinic is beautiful. What faith your town must have had to build it.”

  “That’s my Mother,” explained Mel. “After Doc died, she’s been a one woman campaign team, trying to convince the town to attract a new doctor. There are some great incentives between the state and the feds to get student loans reduced or forgiven but she felt if we had a good facility, it would assure a doctor that they wouldn’t be going back to the nineteenth century by coming here.”

  “I wonder that nobody else from the bay has gone to m
ed school over the years,” sighed Olivia as we closed up the building and put the key back in the mailbox.

  “A few have,” I told her, “but so far, once they’ve gone, they’ve stayed gone.”

  “What about your midwife? Would I be stepping on toes with her?”

  “Gabby’s getting up in years,” said Mel.

  “She delivered me.”

  “That alone would make anyone want retire,” Mel said, making a face. “I think she’d be happy to have somebody to share the load with, so long as they didn’t disrespect what she does.”

  “I could never do that. Midwives and doulas are a wonderful addition to modern medicine. Their care is so calming for mother and baby, it’s better for everyone if I step into a birth only when they need me.”

  “Then you’ll have Gabby’s support.”

  “Will she be at Gram’s funeral?”

  “The whole town will be there,” I said.

  “She must have been well loved here,” said Olivia.

  Mel and I exchanged looks. “Those of us who knew her well will miss her, but Mrs. Nash kept to herself. I’m not sure many people really knew her.”

  “Then why will the whole town come to her funeral?”

  “Because that’s what we do.”

  Back at Mel’s, Bent and Frank were pouring gas into the snowmobiles. They had rigged a platform sled between the two that my father and Bent used to haul firewood. “Do you want to come, hon?” asked Bent when Mel walked over to see what he was doing.

  “No, I think little Ernie here had better wait awhile before his first sled run.”

  “Ernie?” I asked, making a face at her.

  “Or Penny,” answered Bent.

  “Please tell me those aren't the real names.”

  “What’s the matter with them?” asked Mel, with a twinkle in her eye.

  “You’ll never guess who we saw at City Hall,” I said, walking over to my mother, who was standing to one side, supervising.

  “Alex Tilamu?”

  “He came here?”

  “With his sister. I barely recognized them. He was such a promising young man. The years have not been kind.”