The Deadly Art of Love and Murder

by Linda Crowder

  “Were they trying to buy it?”

  “He mentioned something about it the last time or two I spoke to him, but I never thought he’d sell.”

  “The title was transferred a few years after your mother died. The strange thing is, Doc didn’t tell any of us about it. Mrs. Nash, she lost her husband years ago, had been paying rent all that time.”

  “Did she know she owned it? That husband of hers was a real Neanderthal, or so my mother called him. Buying that house without talking to her about it would fit the profile. The joke was on him if he died before he told her.”

  “Yes, I guess you’re right. I never knew him, but she was a very sweet woman.”

  “Mom always liked her. She’d have been happy to know Angie, wasn’t it? She’d have been happy to know Angie had her house.”

  She hung up and I sat on the rock, staring into space until Frank’s voice broke through. “That must’ve been one doozy of a phone call.”

  I blinked and looked up at him. “I’m sorry. I’ve kept you standing in the cold, you must be freezing.”

  “And your lips are turning blue.”

  We started back and I filled Frank in on what Aggie had told me. “It would answer everything except for the fact that the title transferred after Mr. Nash died, so even if he bought it before he and his wife left that summer, Doc didn’t get around to transferring title until he’d died.”

  “If she hadn’t known about it, Doc coulda just kept the money and the house.”

  “Doc would never do that, Frank, for heaven sakes. Anyway, Mrs. Nash paid the property taxes every year since then so she obviously knew even though she paid rent to us when Doc stayed in our cabins, then she paid rent to the Tilamus after Doc died.”

  “And left the house to her granddaughter after she died.”

  “I wonder. Olivia told me her grandmother had recently changed the will.” I stopped again and pulled out my cell.

  “What?” asked Frank, but the line had already been answered.

  “Mr. Clarke, it’s Cara King in Coho Bay.”

  “Ms. King, thank you for sending the preliminary appraisal. It looks as though we’ll have a buyer if Ms. Jordan decides to sell.”

  “Yes, Mr. Dickerson seems very interested. I wonder if you could tell me something.”

  “Yes?”

  “Olivia told me that Mrs. Nash had recently changed her will. I’m wondering if she had originally left the house to the Tilamu heirs, Alex, Anne or Agatha.”

  “I’m not at liberty to reveal that.”

  “No, I didn’t think you would be, but I’m not asking out of curiosity. Dan Simmons is investigating Mrs. Nash’s death as a murder. As you’re aware, we all thought the Tilamu heirs owned the house. Mrs. Nash paid rent as though they did and Alex brought Mr. Dickerson to Alaska in order to sell him the house, thinking his family owned it.”

  “Ms. King, I can assure you, the previous beneficiary was not related to Doctor Tilamu. I’m not aware of Mrs. Nash’s actions in paying rent, but I can assure you there has never been any question in her mind that she is the legal owner of that property.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Clarke.”

  “I could have told you a lawyer will never tell you anything you really want to know,” said Frank when I hung up the phone.

  “He told me what matters. Mrs. Nash never doubted she owned the property and she never left it to the Tilamus in her will. Alex wouldn’t have killed her thinking he’d inherit from her and be able to go forward with the sale.”

  “Whose idiotic theory was that?”

  “Mine, thank you very much. It seemed the only reason Mrs. Nash would pay rent was if she felt sorry for the Tilamus somehow. She didn’t have any heirs, so I thought if she felt sorry for them, she might leave them the house.”

  “Shoots the heck outta that theory.”

  “Yes, but that’s a good thing for Alex. If he killed her, it wouldn’t have been premeditated.”

  “Unless he thought Mrs. Nash was lying.”

  “Lying?”

  “When he confronted her and she told him she owned the house. If it were me, I wouldn’t have taken a batty old woman’s word for it, especially when she’s been paying me rent every summer. I’d have thought she just didn’t want me to sell it.”

  “But then why kill her? He wouldn’t have thought she could stop him.”

  “That’s my point.”

  We’d reached Mel’s by then and I dropped onto the bench where we’d started and popped off my snowshoes. “I never thought of that. I just assumed he was mad because his dreams of all that money were being thwarted.”

  “You assume whatever people tell you is true. I don’t and I don’t think Alex seems like the type to take her word for it. He’d have wanted to check it out.”

  “Dickerson said that he waited at the marina but Alex didn’t come, so he caught the ferry back instead. I can’t imagine Alex would go to all the trouble of bringing the man out here, then leave him standing on the dock while he hustled into Juneau to check the title.”

  “No, but you’re assuming Dickerson is telling the truth. Maybe he’s the one who went to check on the title.”

  “And maybe he rented a boat in Juneau when he found out the old bat was telling the truth,” said a voice behind Frank.

  “Dan, you startled me. How long have you been standing there?”

  “Long enough.”

  “Aggie called me back. She said she hasn’t heard from Alex in years. Anne moved out to Washington State to take care of their brother after her husband died and she hasn’t spoken with her since. Aggie blames her father for killing her mother by taking her back to Alaska instead of letting her stay in D.C. and go into a cancer hospital. She says she never forgave him for it and so she assumed he left the house to them and not her. When I told her Mrs. Nash owned the house, she mentioned the Nashes had wanted to buy the house, but she hadn’t heard they actually did.”

  “Well, aren’t you just a fount of information?”

  “I am. Frank thinks Alex wouldn’t have killed Mrs. Nash since there’s no way he would have believed her.”

  “Unless he’s just nuts,” said Frank. “Some people can’t control their temper.”

  “That’s true. Some people can’t.” Dan looked intently at Frank, until Frank looked away.

  “So what were you saying about Mr. Dickerson renting a boat?”

  “I told you I was gonna check up on our great developer. Turns out he’s under water.”

  “He’s dead?”

  Frank laughed. “He means he owes more than he owns.”

  “Not unheard of for a developer, but there are some properties he’s gambled on that don’t seem to be paying off. He needs a shot of cash pretty badly.”

  “But he wasn’t selling, he was buying.”

  “He was offering Alex fifty thousand.”

  I whistled. “That’s nothing. The land alone is worth four times that much.”

  “Which is where the shot of cash would come from. He’d grab it cheap then sell the land to shore up his cash flow.”

  “But that’s not worth killing someone.”

  “It might be, if you stand to lose millions if you don’t make that interest payment on time. That’s the situation Dickerson is in.”

  “But by killing her, he ties the property up in escrow. If he were that hard up for cash, he’d walk away and look for another patsy.”

  “Which is why nobody kept his card,” said Dan. “He was lowballing people, hoping they wouldn’t know any better than Alex what their land was worth.”

  “So did he rent a boat and come back?” I asked.

  “He rented a boat but he didn’t have it out long enough to have come all the way back here.”

  “So if he didn’t kill her and Alex didn’t kill her then we’re back to suicide?”

  “Nope, we’re very definitely thinking murder. The lab report came back. There were prints on the gun.”

  “Well, don�
�t keep us in suspense, Dan.”

  “I called the prosecutor’s office and they agreed I had enough for a warrant this time. They’re contacting the Tacoma police.”

  “Alex? But we just eliminated him.”

  “You just eliminated him. I just eliminated Dickerson.” Dan tipped his hat at me. “If you’ll excuse me. Marcie invited me for dinner and I wouldn’t want to be late.”

  Chapter 11

  A week went by while we waited to see if the Tacoma police would arrest Alex. Dan told us they’d balked at the idea, but had finally agreed to cooperate and Dad had offered to take him up to Juneau to meet them at the airport. I chafed at being left behind. Even Frank had deserted me, claiming he needed to wrap a few things up at the mill.

  “Caribou, if you’re going to force me to rip out all of your stitches and do them over, I would prefer you didn’t help.”

  “What? Oh. Sorry, Mom.” I looked at the curtain she’d taken from me and was rapidly undoing the sewing I’d just done. “My mind’s a million miles away.”

  “On a boat or at the mill?” asked Mel, smiling at me. She was sitting in her rocking chair, which Bent had moved to the family room and set beside the fireplace. Mom and I had been making curtains, but I was hopeless at sewing even when I was focused.

  “Yes, dear, when are you planning on making a decision? You can’t continue playing one against the other.”

  “I thought you told me I should play the field.”

  “I told you to explore your sexuality, which you seem determined not to do. If you must remain a virgin until marriage, then it’s high time you choose one man or the other.”

  “Will everyone just stop talking about my sex life?”

  “I would, if there were anything to stop talking about.”

  “Mother, stop teasing Cara. Now seriously, this town is too small for you to see both of them and I for one, think it’s just too weird to keep having both of them here for dinner every night.”

  “And what’s it going to be like if I do pick one, Mel? I can’t exactly avoid the other.”

  “Nor can he avoid seeing you with the one you choose,” Mom said, looking up from her sewing. “That is another good reason to choose soon, before either man is likely to be deeply hurt.”

  “What if I choose the wrong one?”

  “What does your heart tell you, Cara?”

  “Dan is very sweet and we can talk for hours. He’s smart and funny.”

  “Then it’s Daniel.”

  “Except that he’s thirteen years older than I am and maybe someday that’ll be nothing, but right now it seems huge. He’s also, I’m not quite sure how to put it.”

  “Not anything near as sexy as Frank,” said Mel.

  “Well, yeah. I know, that’s bad, but Frank is just, well, sexy.”

  Mom put her fabric down. “And what else?”

  “He’s funny. I don’t know, Mom. What do you want me to say?”

  “Are you in love with either of them, Cara?”

  “I don’t know. How did you know you loved Bent?”

  Mel’s face broke into a smile. “He’s Bent. How could I not love him?”

  “But how did you know?”

  “It’s difficult to put into words, Caribou. When you love a man, you just do. He’s part of your life, part of your thoughts. You were perfectly fine before he came along and suddenly you realize you can’t imagine life without him.”

  “You trust him, absolutely,” added Mel. “You’re completely honest with him, no games, no feeling like you have to be something you’re not.”

  “But you want to be more than you are because of him.”

  “That makes no sense, Mom.”

  She smiled, a soft smile I didn’t usually associate with my mother. “Love doesn’t have to make sense. It just has to make you happy.”

  “What if I like both of them, but what if I’m not in love? If I choose now, and I choose the wrong one, I could realize after it’s too late that I love the other one.”

  “Listen to your heart, Caribou. It will know when it’s time to make a choice.”

  “But you both just said I have to choose now.”

  “We said you can’t go on not choosing,” said Mel, suppressing a giggle. “We didn’t say you had to choose.”

  I DON’T KNOW HOW WORD got out that my father and Dan were bringing Alex back for the murder of Mrs. Nash, but the whole town seemed to be at the marina when the boat pulled in. Fortunately the week had been warm and the snow was nothing more than puddles in the roadway. If it was going to be a normal winter, we’d have a few more nice weeks before the temperatures would drop consistently and the snow that fell would start hanging around. Being on the water, our winters were mild, with temperatures rarely falling lower than five or ten below and even that was only for short times. Today the thermometer outside Mel’s had read forty-eight and as I looked around, I saw sweaters and sweatshirts but no coats.

  Alex Tilamu, in contrast, looked like he’d dressed with the North Pole in mind. Granted, he’d been on the open water for three hours, but I didn’t even own a coat with that much down in it. I tied off the boat for Dad to keep Dan’s hands free to guide Alex up the ladder and onto the dock. I don’t know what I’d expected from him, but whatever it was, I was disappointed. He didn’t look like a murderer, but I suppose no one ever did.

  I waited for the two men to get past me, then helped Dad close up the boat. “What do you think, Dad? Did he do it?”

  “I really couldn’t tell you, Kit. No one knows what evil hides in a person’s mind.”

  “Wasn’t that from an old radio show?”

  “What? Oh, The Shadow. Close. I’m just glad Doc never lived to see this day.”

  I linked arms with him and we headed up the dock. There was an odd silence on the boardwalk, considering how many people were watching Dan and Alex making their way to City Hall. “Why did Dan bring him here, Dad? Wouldn’t they hold him at Lemon Creek?” I asked, referring to the correctional facility in Juneau that houses both convicted felons and those awaiting trial.

  “Dan said he had a slew of questions for him before he turns him over to the state. I don’t think he’ll break out, do you?” Dad nodded to a group of men who’d been standing in the street and who now took up positions around City Hall. Each man was carrying a rifle or shotgun and I knew each of them were former military.

  “Bent?”

  “Dan asked him to put together a rotating guard. He had to prove that we could be trusted to hang onto Alex before they agreed to let us take him. C’mon, Kit. I suspect there will be a few customers for Mel’s tonight and she’s only got your mother to help her cook.”

  “Heaven help us,” I said, laughing and turning toward home. “Frank’s on the second shift?”

  “I don’t know, honey. I wasn’t here when Bent called out the troops.”

  “I just didn’t see him, that’s all. I’m sure he’ll stop by.”

  “Is it Frank then?”

  “Is what Frank?”

  “Is he the one?”

  “Dad, don’t you start. I had a whole day of Mom and Mel’s advice for the love-lorn.”

  He laughed. “Sorry. I don’t think you could go wrong with either of them.”

  I waited. “But?”

  “I like Dan. Always have. He’s a good man.”

  “And Frank isn’t?”

  “I’m sure he is, honey. It’s just that I’ve known Dan most of his life.”

  “You could say that in favor of any boy from the bay, Dad.”

  “That’s true, and I’m sure you know Frank much better than any of us, so if he’s good enough for you, Kit, he’s good enough for me.”

  I stopped, pulling Dad onto a bench just shy of Mel’s since the crowd was still concentrated on City Hall. “That’s just it, Daddy. I don’t know that I do know Frank. Dan talks to me, but Frank is just... There. He’s funny and good-looking and he seems to be a good guy.”

  “Then w
hy is he still in the running?”

  “Because Dan kisses me and it’s like I’m kissing my brother.”

  “You don’t have a brother,” Dad teased, “but I know what you mean, Kit. Sometimes you really like somebody but the spark isn’t there.”

  “But sometimes the spark is a wildfire. That doesn’t make it love, though does it?”

  “So maybe you haven’t met the right guy yet.”

  I leaned against his arm. “Mom thinks I haven’t met the right woman.”

  “What?”

  I laughed. “Never mind. We’d better get moving. People are starting to head this way and I don’t want to have nothing but Mom’s coffee to serve them.”

  “Or yours. Or mine for that matter. For Mel’s sake, I hope her baby can cook.”

  THE MOOD WAS SUBDUED at Mel’s that evening. Everybody had loved Doc and the thought that his only son had gone so wrong was disquieting. As I circulated, taking orders and refilling coffee cups, I listened to stories about Doc and Mrs. T. I’d mentioned to a few people what Aggie had told me about blaming her father and why, and that her mother had always been fond of Mrs. Nash. By the time I’d started serving pound cake, which was all Mom could bake that was actually edible, my gossip planting had reaped the desired effect. People who’d been on the fence about Mrs. Nash after Alex’s outburst, were now sympathetic.

  “Mom,” I said, reporting in as she started washing dishes, “I give you three weeks to work on people after church and you’ll be able to put together a delegation of residents asking Olivia to reconsider.”

  “I hope so, dear. Now, go help your father. Melody and I have things under control back here.”

  “That right, Melly?”

  “Shoo, Cara. You baby me too much, all of you. I’m only pregnant. I’m not going to break with a little hard work.”

  “No morning sickness today?”

  “No, thank goodness,” answered my mother before Mel could. “She seems to be past that now.”

  “Nice to have you back, sis.”

  “Go, before Dad forgets himself and makes coffee.”

  I pushed through the door into the dining room and stopped cold. Dan was standing in the doorway, Alex beside him. Outside, I could see that two of the guard detail had stationed themselves on either side of the door. There was dead silence in the dining room. Even my Dad stood immobile, coffee pot poised over an empty cup.