by Jack Parker
Gracie flipped through several pages, glancing at the photos. "I don't see you or your brothers or mother in here, though I'm not real sure I'd recognize you."
Loretta stepped closer, reached down to flip back to the first page. "Oh, that's one of John's albums. I took them all after he died; they don't belong to Mother."
Cheryl was busily adding quite a lot of sugar to her tea but she looked up at that statement. "Don't they really belong to Ms. Rodgers?" she asked, trying not to make it sound accusatory.
"Well, of course I intend to give them to her," Loretta said. "I just haven't gotten 'round to it yet. I was afraid Mother would find out and get pissy about it." She took a glass of tea for herself and sat down next to Gracie. "Scooch over a little. It'll be easier if I don't have to look at the pictures upside-down."
Gracie moved to give the older woman more room, using the rearrangement to give herself a moment to think how to word her next statement. "Uh, I'd be more than happy to take the albums to Meredith, Mrs. Logan."
Loretta looked at her a bit sharply, then seemed to concede. "Why thank you, Gracie." She turned her attention to the album. "Oh, that's little Marianne; isn't she just cute as a button?"
Halfway through the book they ran into John and Robbie Redmond's wedding photos.
"She looks happy," Cheryl commented. "But John looks like he might toss his cookies."
Loretta laughed. "You'd think he'd be used to it by the third wedding. But he so wanted everything to be perfect for Mother. He was such a thoughtful man." She laughed again, with genuine mirth this time. "I teased Mother about marrying a Red Man. She said she didn't care what color he was, his money was green.
"Bad pun," Gracie and Cheryl said together. But Cheryl glowered at Loretta and remained quiet for several minutes.
An hour and two glasses of iced tea later they'd been through six photo albums without seeing anything that was more than vaguely interesting. Gracie was glad she drank unsweetened tea because she'd had more than enough of Loretta's syrupy attitude. And they had three more books to go through.
"Mrs. Logan, where's the bathroom?" Cheryl asked.
"Oh, just go down that hall," Loretta said, pointing. "You can't miss it."
Cheryl gently nudged Gracie in the ribs with her elbow as she stood up, risking a quick eye-jerk towards the rest of the house.
Gracie gave Cheryl time to leave the room before saying, "Gee, after all that tea I need to go, too."
"We have more than one, you know," Loretta said. "You can use the one in my bedroom. Turn right at the end of the hall. Don't pay any attention to the mess, the maid's not due 'til tomorrow."
"Thanks." Gracie walked down the hall to find doors on either side. The left-hand door was closed. Must've been Bob's bedroom, Gracie thought. Surely she wouldn't hide it in there. She turned right and walked through Loretta's bedroom.
It was messy indeed, clothes and jewelry strung around on every available surface. Beneath the clutter she could see French Provencal furniture, all white with gilt edges and lots of curlicues. Pink curtains and lace sheers covered the window. "Looks like a ten year old's Princess room," Gracie muttered under her breath. "I bet Bob didn't sleep in here when he was alive, and who could blame him?"
She walked through into the bathroom and took care of business first. The vanity was covered with pill bottles and toiletries; she recognized some of the expensive brands her stepmother Jennifer used. Not feeling even the slightest bit guilty she quickly looked through the drawers but came up empty. She stood in the doorway to the bedroom wondering where else to look. Having thought of Jennifer she suddenly remembered that Jennifer had been in the habit of not taking her jewelry off until she climbed into bed, and then she'd drop it in the drawer of her nightstand. That habit had saved a few pieces from being stolen in a burglary. "Well, except that it wasn't a real burglary and she got everything back," she muttered as she walked to the nightstand.
Gracie walked back to the living room feeling very much lighter in more ways than one. She managed a quick nod to Cheryl as Loretta hauled out yet another album. She paid more attention to the pictures now, realizing that Charlie – even as an adult – really did like to indulge in making bunny-ears behind people's heads. How juvenile.
They'd just finished that album when her phone rang. She glanced at it and said, "Sorry, it's my boyfriend. I'll just be a minute." She stood up and walked to a corner of the room for privacy.
"Don't you have a boyfriend, Cheryl?" Loretta asked. What should've been a simple question of someone newly met instead sounded accusatory. Her eyes glittered with predatory curiosity.
Cheryl looked up at her tone, but decided it wasn't worth getting upset about. "Oh, no, I like to date as many guys as I can!" she replied happily. "Why tie yourself down to just one?"
Loretta's face relaxed into confidentiality. "Honey, you're a smart girl! Take it from me; don't settle for the first guy who proposes to you. My first husband…"
"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to get going," Gracie said. She brandished her phone for emphasis. "Kelly's feeling unloved; apparently he thinks I've been here too long."
"Well, we can't have that," Loretta laughed.
Cheryl stood up and put her empty glass back on the teacart. "Thank you for letting us look at your pictures, and for the tea, too."
Gracie began sorting through the books looking for the ones that belonged to John.
"What are you doing?" Loretta asked, a bit too sharply.
Gracie looked up in surprise. "I was going to take her brother's albums to Ms. Rodgers."
"Oh, honey, you run along and spend time with your boyfriend," Loretta said airily. "I'll run them over to her in a few days." She took the albums out of Gracie's arms. "You two have a good evening. Too bad you didn't find anything."
CHAPTER 75
Wednesday
"You found it where?" Ken asked.
"In Loretta Logan's nightstand drawer," Gracie replied. "See? I took several pictures showing it in place, with enough background that you'll recognize the room when you see it."
Ken, sitting at his desk, scrolled through the pictures that Gracie had sent from her phone. "I can see that. What'd you do, search her whole house?"
"Not the whole place," Gracie said. "Cheryl got up to use the restroom and I thought if I said I needed to go too I'd have to use the other restroom and that would give me a chance to look around a little more."
"You dragged Cheryl into this too?"
"Oh, there wasn't any dragging involved. She loved the idea of snooping. Especially after Mrs. Logan made a racial joke; it's probably a good thing she didn't find it because she was so irritated she'd probably have taken it."
Ken had forgotten about Cheryl's African-American roots. To him she was just a lovely young woman who was Gracie's friend. Loretta Logan went down in his personal estimation. "I'll bet," he said neutrally.
"And I made sure to get three really good close-ups, so you can read it," Gracie continued. "You'll have to verify it's in Mrs. Redmond's handwriting, but you can clearly see that it names Jason as the sole beneficiary."
There was silence on the line while Ken thought the situation over. "Gracie, I can't do anything about this."
"But, Ken!" she said. "It's Robbie's Will, and it gives Jason motive to kill her!"
"It may be," he hedged. "And if it is, it would provide motive for Mr. Wheeler. But I can't get a warrant for it since you discovered it during an illegal search. You understand?"
"Oh." The excitement had gone out of Gracie's voice. "Yeah, I get it. You can't use it at all? It does explain why Jason acted so funny about her Will; he must've given it to his sister after he figured out it could make him look more guilty."
"It sounds more like she took it from him," Ken said. He winced slightly, realizing he shouldn't be telling Gracie anything more than he already had.
"I think you're right!" she said, enthused once again. "That would be the kind of thing she'd do. She said I c
ould give Meredith her brother's photo albums, but then when we left she took 'em out of my hands and said she'd do it herself. She is so two-faced!"
"Why would you think Mr. Wheeler is guilty?" he asked, in a tone indicating she was way off base.
"Well, that Will and his fingerprint on the plate," she said. "Mr. Wheeler told me about that himself," she added, suddenly remembering that Ken could get in trouble if she appeared too chummy. She'd called the phone on his desk, and wouldn't put it past the cops to record those calls.
"For which he has a perfectly logical explanation," Ken replied adamantly. "But that Will – if it is Roberta Redmond's Will – could also make him a target."
"Oh, you're right!" Gracie said. "I hadn't thought of that." Her mind raced as she thought about the possibilities, but she knew better than to ask if Ken had any proof of that theory. Then it occurred to her that maybe Ken was trying to give her a hint. "But you can't use it because I screwed up."
"Your intentions were good but no, I can't use it."
"Thanks, Ken. Talk to you later." Was there a hint of stress on the word 'I'? Gracie wondered.
* * * *
"Kelly's still at Chris' house," Gracie told her friends as they all sat in her bedroom. She rolled her eyes. "They're trying to get that old car of his running; it could take days."
"It's not like Chris' family is broke or anything," Shawna complained. "Wouldn't it be easier if he just got a new car? Not brand-new, just another car. One that ran."
"Boys will be boys," Cheryl intoned. "They think it's more fun if you fix it yourself."
"I just thought he'd be here is all, since he called you at Loretta's house," Shawna said.
"I texted him asking him to call," Gracie said. "After I found that Will I wanted to get out of there fast, except it would look funny if I left with no reason."
"So we'll just have to figure this out without him," Shawna said. "What do you think, Gracie? Did Jason kill Robbie or was someone trying to kill him and missed?"
"I've had a problem thinking Jason killed his mother from the very beginning," Gracie said. "It really bothers me to think that Charlie, Loretta, or Ashley might have too. They didn't all share the same blood, but she raised them."
"That doesn't mean one of 'em didn't do it," Cheryl said. "We know she wasn't a very nice woman, and it's been known to happen."
"It could be one of the wives," Shawna reminded them. "I know none of us thinks for a second that it was Gracie, but are we all agreed it's not Ms. Rodgers?"
"I was with her the entire time," Gracie pointed out. "She didn't bring any cookies, she didn't even touch Robbie Redmond, and she took things away instead of leaving anything. We've gone over the details, and there's just nothing that makes it worth her effort to kill the woman at all, much less on Thursday evening."
"Robbie's death does benefit her," Cheryl said. "But it equally benefits all the others. Ken probably thinks this was just the first time she had the opportunity to commit murder."
"Which is exactly why she wouldn't have done it," Shawna said. "It's too obvious."
"Okay, let's talk about Jason," Gracie suggested. "Even if Ken can't go get that Will, we know what it says; Jason gets everything."
"Gives him motive, for sure," Cheryl agreed. "And since he had the key to the lockbox at the bank he probably knew he inherited it all. So why did he take the Will out? Wouldn't it be better to pretend he couldn't find it?"
"That's a good question," Gracie agreed, nodding. "Ken could probably find out that Robbie had a safety deposit box, and maybe get a court order to open it. But it would've looked a lot better if he was the one to discover that Jason was the only beneficiary. That way Jason could've looked surprised."
"Do we believe his story about knocking the cookies off the nightstand?" Shawna inquired. "I think I do, it would be easy enough to happen."
The other two girls nodded.
"Hey, what if Jason didn't know what was in the Will?" Shawna asked. "Just because he had a key doesn't mean he actually used it. Before the murder, I mean."
Cheryl turned to Gracie's laptop and enlarged the image of the Will. "It's dated two weeks ago!"
"Which doesn't really tell us anything," Shawna said.
"I'd think it makes it less likely that he knew about it beforehand," Gracie remarked. "Everyone says Robbie was always threatening to change her Will. I bet sometimes she cooled off and didn't do it."
"Ooh, and her kids never knew if she was just crying wolf so they didn't worry about it," Cheryl said.
"If they weren't willing to do whatever it was she wanted, they probably were too mad to care," Shawna added. "And don't forget that until John died she didn't have anything to leave to them."
"We've gone over the idea that whoever killed her did it Thursday because of her cold," Gracie said. "Meredith was there, too, and that would make her look suspicious. That's the only reason I can think of to kill her on that particular day."
"Night," Cheryl corrected.
"Whatever," Gracie returned. "So let's look at what happens when we say Jason was the target. First of all, it means that someone had to know Robbie had changed her Will in his favor."
"Or suspect it," Cheryl said.
"And none of the others had a key to the bank box," Shawna said. "Robbie could've told them about it; she sounds nasty enough to want to throw it in their face."
"But did they believe her?" Cheryl asked.
"What if they knew about it because she showed the new Will to them?" Gracie asked. "That would definitely be throwing it in their face."
"Must've been a huge fight for her to do that," Shawna commented. "I'm not even a little surprised that no one told Ken anything about it."
"But I'm not sure it would matter," Cheryl said. "Robbie was old but she wasn't really in bad health, there wasn't any reason to think she'd die anytime soon. They'd figure it would all blow over and next time it'd be Jason that she got mad at."
Gracie looked thoughtful. "We're forgetting one very important thing! Is Jason allergic to nuts?"
The other two girls looked properly stunned at the question.
"I have no idea if allergies are hereditary," Shawna said.
"How can we find out?" Cheryl asked.
"I've talked to them all in the last couple of days," Gracie said. "Well, I talked to Karen instead of Charlie, but same thing. It'll be hard to come up with some reason to ask about it and not make it seem suspicious."
"All of them," Shawna said. "What if one of the others is allergic, too?"
"I hadn't thought of that," Cheryl mused.
"Ashley isn't a blood relation and Jason's just a half-brother to Charlie and Loretta, but that doesn't mean they don't have nut allergies," Gracie said. "Lots of people do. That would mean that the Will wasn't the killer's motive, and that doesn't make a lot of sense."
"It does if you plan to steal it from your brother," Cheryl said meaningfully.
"By which I guess you mean you think Loretta tried to kill him and when it backfired she just stole the Will instead," Gracie clarified.
Cheryl looked uncertain. "When you put it that way, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Besides, she's rich, isn't she?"
"What'd Ms. Rodgers say, half of John's Estate is $100K?" Shawna asked. "So that's, um, $25,000 for each of Robbie's surviving four kids? Or a little over $33,000 each if the one that lives in New Zealand was cut out of any later Will Robbie might make after Jason's death."
"There are plenty of people who'd kill for less," Cheryl said. "But it is kinda hard to see that Loretta Logan would. She probably pays her maid more than that every year!"
"And her maid earns every penny of it, believe me." Gracie commented. "I think she's up to something, I just don't know what. If she killed anyone, it wasn't for the money. Ashley really cares for Jason, so I can't see her doing it because she would know how badly it would hurt him."
"Do you suppose Loretta took Robbie's Will because she wanted to protect Jason?" S
hawna asked.
Gracie and Cheryl just looked at her.
"It's possible," Shawna insisted. "She knew it would give him a motive and when Gracie finds out who the killer is she'll give it back to Jason."
"You haven't met her," Cheryl said acerbically. "If anything, she stole it so he wouldn't get all the money."
"Or so Charlie would get a share," Gracie mused. "They're full siblings, she might feel close enough to him to be willing to help a little. Especially if Jason and Cindy just left it lying around somewhere; she could just slip it in her purse and they'd never know."
"I wish you'd taken it, Gracie," Cheryl told her. "And I wish you'd insisted on taking those photo albums, too."
"And what?" Gracie asked sharply. "Claimed I just happened to find the Will stuck in the pages of the books?"
"That's not a bad idea!" Shawna said. "Loretta would know what you'd done, but she couldn't prove it. And that way you could give the Will to Ken. Or better yet, Ms. Rodgers could 'find' it and give it to him. If you could just get the albums from Loretta you could still do that."
"I really doubt Ken would accept it now, since I already told him about finding it at Loretta's house," Gracie said. "If we go on the theory that the killer was after Jason, Charlie, Loretta, or Ashley it might be connected. If we assume one of the spouses was the target I doubt it is."
"If it was one of them, then what happened? Why didn't they eat the poisoned cookies?" Shawna asked.
"Maybe because Gracie was there," Cheryl suggested. "She was a stranger and Ms. Rodgers had told everybody how she solved her father's murder. Maybe they were afraid to go through with it while she was there."
"So they waited until she was gone?" Shawna asked. "If they were afraid of her powers of deduction wouldn't that have looked just as bad?"
"Gracie never saw any cookies," Cheryl responded. "So they thought they'd be safe handing them over after she'd left." She paused a minute, lost in thought. "Then how did Robbie get them instead of whoever was supposed to? I know! Maybe they got cold feet and threw 'em in the trash; Robbie found 'em later and ate 'em."
