by Jack Parker
"That's just a formality," Jason insisted. "You think we can get Loretta or Ashley to pony up the money to bury her?" he asked apparently of his wife.
"No, Sir, it's not a formality," Ken said firmly. "Was your mother allergic to anything?"
Jason frowned. "Nuts," he said belligerently.
Ken drew breath to respond, but Cindy beat him to it. "She was allergic to nuts, is what he means, Detective. Why?"
"The coroner doesn't have all the test results yet, but he believes your mother died of an anaphylactic reaction. If she was allergic to nuts that could well have been the cause."
"And you think I gave them to her?" Jason yelled.
"Calm down, honey," Cindy urged. "She certainly wouldn't have eaten them herself!"
"You should be asking Mary Beth about that," Jason said, somewhat mollified.
"I certainly will," Ken replied. "I will also need to speak to your brother and sisters when they arrive. So you go ahead and take your shower, Mr. Wheeler and I'll wait right here. I will try to keep this as short as possible, and then leave you to make your plans. And I will need a key to your mother's house." He hoped neither of them would think to give the siblings a warning call, but that couldn't be helped.
* * * *
An hour later Ken sat at a tiny plastic table in the nearest McDonald's eating a Big Mac, nibbling fries, and trying to make sense of his notes. He decided the first thing to do was draw out a family tree; bush was more like it, and he wasn't even worrying about grandkids at the moment. None of them had been at the Redmond residence last night, though they could've given grandma something days earlier and it was just coincidence that she'd eaten it last night.
Roberta May Nichols had first married James Stubblefield and they had two children together: Charles (Charlie) Stubblefield and Loretta Stubblefield Logan. At some point James Stubblefield had died, and Robbie subsequently married Earl Wheeler who had two daughters from his first marriage. Ashley Wheeler Kamp and Theresa Wheeler Scarborough were Robbie's step-children. Theresa had left home at 18 and never looked back, and was now living halfway around the world in Rotorua, New Zealand. Jason was the only child of Robbie and Earl, born not long before the older four kids grew up and left the house.
Ken wondered just how close the siblings really were especially since there was a 15 to 20 year difference in age with Jason. Not to mention the fact that Jason was the only child left in the nest after the older ones left; he wouldn't be surprised if she'd obviously treated him with more affection. It would be interesting to see what her Will said, but Cindy said they hadn't even looked for a Will yet. Perhaps one of the others had learned they wouldn't get anything and thought it would look funny if their mother just happened to die as soon as she received her inheritance. Last night's family meeting would've been the perfect opportunity to throw suspicion on the others, especially since the third husband's only sister was there as well.
Robbie had divorced Mr. Wheeler, and eventually married John Redmond when Jason was a teenager, though Redmond had not adopted the boy. Although Redmond had been married thrice, he had no children and only the one sister. Their parents had died when the girl was small and Redmond had raised her, so presumably they had been close at one time. But everyone had insisted that she hadn't been part of the picture for a long time, though Loretta Logan had claimed that Robbie had deliberately campaigned to discredit the sister in her brother's eyes. When asked why, she had flatly stated that her mother hoped he would cut the sister out of his Will so she would inherit all the money. And Mrs. Logan had been the one to invite her to the party; the other three had seemed genuinely surprised – and irritated – at her appearance.
Though everyone berated John's sister, it seemed to Ken that Mrs. Logan was the loose cannon. With her siblings in the room Loretta acted heartbroken over her mother's death and made cutting remarks about Ms. Rodgers; alone with Ken she told a quite different story, calling Robbie a gold-digger and inveterate shopper who used anyone and everyone for her own ends. Especially including her children. Ken would certainly check out Loretta's claim that she had plenty of money in her own right, a claim that neatly nixed the motive of greed. She cheerfully admitted to spiking Robbie's coffee, saying she thought it might chill her out with Ms. Rodgers in the house.
Charlie Stubblefield appeared to be a simple hard-working man who displayed a deep-seated anger at Ms. Rodgers, who had apparently forced the beginning of the probate. When pressed for details he clearly still didn't understand why his mother couldn't give a copy of a Will to the court.
Ashley Kamp seemed like a cool-headed woman, obviously aware of her step-mother's foibles yet taking them in stride. She neither apologized nor approved of them. She seemed confident of doing a good job as Personal Representative of John's Estate. (Ken still thought of that office as 'Executor'.) She'd rolled her eyes at his question of the copy of the Will saying she'd known the court wouldn't accept it, and also known her step-mother would try anyway.
All parties involved claimed they'd left Mrs. Redmond's house en masse shortly after the family meeting broke up around 6:30 p.m., and she'd been fine except for her cold. They all knew that Jason was supposed to pick her up for the hearing this morning. They all knew she was allergic to nuts. No one saw any nuts, or anything that might possibly have had nuts in it. Robbie hadn't said anything about expecting any further visitors that evening.
There were certainly a lot of possibilities to work with here, and he hadn't even spoken to the ostracized sister yet. Jason Wheeler lived well so he either made good money or paid on a great many loans; if it was the latter then he could certainly use an infusion of money. His quick resort to the bottle for solace tended to indicate that was his usual way of handling trouble and that tended to indicate he was used to having trouble. Cindy Wheeler obviously cared for her husband, but she was the strong one. She hadn't hinted at trouble with her mother-in-law, even alone with Ken. But that didn't mean the two got along famously. As a take-charge type she might've quietly decided to remove the problem, whether it involved money or the cutting of apron strings.
Charlie Stubblefield seemed to think his mother was entitled to get whatever she wanted; the copy of the Will giving her a larger percentage of the Estate being a case in point. He didn't strike Ken as being terribly bright, and probably saw the world in stark black-and-white. Yet there were hints that deep down he realized she wasn't playing fair, especially with Ms. Rodgers. He seemed genuinely conflicted at refusing to let the woman see her brother's cremains. Had he grown tired of seeing Jason treated with favoritism? Going solely by the way the man dressed he didn't have a lot of money, which would make the death a two-fer. His wife Karen had said very little and had a down-trodden air about her as if used to doing whatever others wanted. Sometimes the quiet ones were the ones you had to worry about.
Loretta Logan was the over-friendly type, babbling incessantly about inconsequential things instead of giving straightforward answers. Until there was something she wanted you to know, and then she said it right out as with her financial position. That and her flip-flopping behavior made her appear self-centered as well as untrustworthy. She played whatever role she thought would get her the most from each person. Should she have decided she'd had enough of her mother's antics she'd be the kind that would smile sweetly as she handed over the nuts. Her most recently deceased husband had been a doctor and would certainly have known the dangers of an allergy; he'd probably talked to her about it.
Ashley Kamp claimed to have little to do with either Robbie or most of her stepsiblings, and the others had backed up that claim. However, in spite of the age difference she was close to her stepbrother Jason. She was divorced with two children, and said she made quite a good living selling real estate. She was calm, cool, and collected; the all-business type who didn't show a lot of emotion. She admitted she wasn't broken-hearted at her stepmother's death, nor had she been any more upset over John Redmond's. She did say she'd hoped Redmond, unlike Robbie
's previous husbands (including Ashley's own father), would've stood up to Robbie and refused to let her get away with her head games and was disappointed when that hadn't happened. He'd gotten the feeling this woman had abandonment issues and that might cause her to want revenge.
Ken wadded up his wrapper and dropped it in the trash on his way out. Tomorrow he'd ask the department bean counter to check into financial backgrounds and the details of the Probate case, but right now he needed to talk to Ms. Rodgers. However when he pulled up in front of her house there were no lights on and no one answered the door. It was Friday night and the woman was single, she could well be out on a date. She could also be out celebrating the death of the wicked aunt-cum-step-mother.
* * * *
Clarissa Wilson put her book down when the doorbell rang and went to answer it, fully expecting it to be one of her daughter's friends. Judging by the music and laughter coming from Gracie's room there was quite a party going on in there with Shawna, Cheryl, and Kelly in attendance. This was an off night for the high school football team, so apparently the kids were finding their own amusement. She was surprised to open the door and see Ken Freeman standing there.
"Hi, Ken! Come on in," she said. She turned her head and yelled "Gracie!"
"Good evening, Mrs. Wilson," Ken said.
Clarissa turned back to regard the man. "My, but you're being awfully formal tonight. If you can't hear, Gracie's in her room. I'll go tell her you're here." She started to turn away to do just that.
"I'm afraid this is a formal visit, Mrs. Wilson," Ken said.
Clarissa stopped in her tracks. "Is Gracie in trouble?" she asked in a worried voice.
Ken looked decidedly uncomfortable. "I need to ask her some questions, and even though she's of age I think it would be best if you were with her."
Clarissa raised an eyebrow at that, but she knew how to play her role. "Please come in Lieutenant; have a seat in the living room and my daughter and I will be there in a moment." She pointed to the room in question, as if Ken were a stranger instead of a friend who'd been there several times before. Then she ran down the hall and knocked loudly on Gracie's bedroom door.
Shawna opened the door, funneling a blast of loud music seemingly straight into Clarissa's ear. "Please tell Gracie that Lt. Freeman is here and wants to see her, alone," Clarissa said.
"Ken?" Shawna asked as if to make certain they were talking about the same person. "Huh. Must be about Mrs. Rodgers." She turned to yell at Gracie. "Ken wants to talk to you!"
Gracie unwound from the purple beanbag and came to the door. She closed it behind her knowing how her mother felt about the loud music but was surprised when her mother reached out to lay a hand gently on her arm.
"Gracie, Ken says this is an official visit," Clarissa said. "He wants me with you while he asks his questions."
Gracie relaxed and smiled. "Oh, Mom, it's okay. Mrs. Rodgers' aunt was found dead this morning, and I was at her house last night." She paused to think a moment. "I bet he's just checking up because of the court case; maybe he thinks it gives Meredith motive to do the woman in."
"What court case?" Clarissa asked. "What have you gotten involved with?"
"Meredith's brother died and the family's fighting over his Estate. They were pretty rude to her last night and I know she doesn't like the aunt but it's not like she killed her. She didn't even get close enough to shake her hand."
Clarissa looked at her daughter uncertainly. "I hope you're right."
Gracie led the way into the living room, unconcerned until she saw Ken's face. She'd met him when he investigated her father's murder, and ended up helping him solve it. He'd been impressed with her way of thinking and since then he'd asked her about aspects of several other cases; because he trusted her judgment, last year he'd looked into what had appeared to be nothing more than a string of accidents but had turned out to be murder. He was her friend, and she'd assumed he just wanted her report on the family meeting…until she saw how stiffly he sat in the chair.
"Hi, Lieutenant," she said. She usually called him by name, but something told her his title would be better suited to this occasion. She and her mother sat together on the couch facing him.
"Hello, Miss Greene," Ken said. "I'm investigating the death of Roberta Redmond. I understand you were at her home yesterday evening?"
"Yes, Sir, I was," she replied. "Meredith Rodgers is my math teacher, and she asked if I would go with her to a family meeting at her aunt's, Mrs. Redmond's, house."
"Why did she ask you to accompany her?"
"She doesn't get along well with her aunt's family and, well, I think she just really wanted a friend with her."
"What was the purpose of this meeting?"
"Her brother passed away about six months ago. He left a Trust but the lawyers think there's a problem with it. There was a hearing about it this morning and they wanted to plan their strategy in case the judge ruled against them."
Ken had a fairly good general idea of the problems involved with John's Estate and Trust, but wanted to see how much Gracie knew. "And did they?"
Gracie chuckled. "There really wasn't anything to plan. They were all arguing about why Mr. Redmond's Trustee didn't want to turn over the Trust papers, and I finally got 'em to see that they should just wait for the hearing and let their own lawyers handle it if they didn't like the judge's decision. But the judge ruled that the paperwork had to be turned over, which is what they wanted so that turned out okay."
"You're not related to any of these people, right?" Ken kept his questions short and to the point.
Gracie shook her head. "No, Sir."
"Had you ever met Mrs. Redmond – or her children – before last night?
"No, Sir."
"So why did you make decisions for them?"
This time Gracie rolled her eyes. "Because nobody else would. Mrs. Redmond didn't even seem that worried about the hearing; it was her kids that were freaking out."
"Freaking out. How so?"
"They just seemed really concerned that they get those papers." Gracie shrugged.
"Were they angry with anyone? Mrs. Rodgers, for instance?"
"Mr. Redmond's Trustee," Gracie replied. "I forget her name. But they weren't pleased that Mrs. Rodgers was there."
"Connie Canardi is the woman's name," Ken read from his notes. "Did they say anything to Mrs. Rodgers?"
"They didn't want her to go anywhere else in the house," she said. "They'd bagged up some of her brother's things but tried to keep her from going to the study to get them herself. That's because there was apparently a lot of stuff missing. Oh, and they wouldn't even let her see the urn of her brother's ashes."
Ken hadn't heard about the missing items. "What did she think was gone? Was she angry about that?"
Gracie furrowed her brow in thought. "A computer; Jason had that. And they admitted they'd sold a lot of Mr. Redmond's things without offering her anything first.
A stamp collection. She was angry at first, but I guess she figured it wouldn't do any good and she calmed down. When Charlie wouldn't let her see the ashes she just told him she'd tell her lawyer about it."
"Did she take the items she'd been offered?"
"Yes, she put them in her car and then we went back inside and started talking about the hearing."
"Did she make any threats, even veiled ones, to Mrs. Redmond?"
"No, Sir."
"Did she give anything to Mrs. Redmond?"
"Nothing. She never even got close enough to touch the woman. Her daughter Loretta and I fixed coffee; Loretta handed the cup to her."
"Who poured the coffee?"
"Lieutenant Freeman, really!" Clarissa exclaimed. She'd sat by quietly but she couldn't take this. "Are you suggesting that Gracie put poison in that coffee cup?"
Ken didn't answer, though he sat up a little straighter in his chair.
"I poured coffee for Meredith and myself," Gracie said. "But before I could pour Mrs. Redmond's cup Loretta added s
ome liquor. Then I filled it the rest of the way with coffee."
"What kind of liquor; did you see the bottle?"
"No I didn't, but I could smell it, it was liquor all right. Loretta had startled me and I spilled some coffee, so I was cleaning it up. Later she fixed her mother another one, and I wasn't in the kitchen when she did. The woman was alive and well when we left."
"You had nothing to do with fixing that second cup of coffee?"
"No, Sir."
"What time did you leave?"
"A little before 6:30. Mrs. Rodgers had driven me there and we left together. We stopped to pick up a pizza and then went back to her house. We ate and talked about the meeting and the family and the Estate; I got home just after 8 p.m."
"So the other family members were still there when you left?"
"Yes, Sir."
"How do you know about the outcome of the hearing and Mrs. Redmond's death?"
"Mrs. Rodgers told me about both after school. She was at the hearing, and that's when Mrs. Redmond's lawyer told the Court about the death."
"Do you know what was in the bags that Mrs. Rodgers was given?"
"Loretta scooped up some papers from the desk and put 'em in one of the bags, but I don't know what was already in there. It was dark when we put 'em in the car, and Mrs. Rodgers didn't go through them while I was there at her house."
"Is there anything else you can tell me?" Ken was running out of questions.
Gracie paused to think and then said, "No, Sir. If I do remember anything I'll let you know."
"Do you know where Mrs. Rodgers is this evening?"
Gracie's face looked blank. "Why would I? Uh, No, Sir, I don't. We talked for a few minutes after school, but she didn't say anything about having plans tonight. From all these questions I'm assuming there could be something suspicious about Mrs. Redmond's death, and that Mrs. Rodgers is a possible suspect."
"Let me just say that I am not yet convinced that it was a natural death. It not, then everyone at Mrs. Redmond's home last night are suspects; Mrs. Rodgers, Mrs. Redmond's four children and their spouses – and you."
