Leo's face stayed carefully neutral. ″You know it's not my job to jump to conclusions. For now I'm going to go talk to him. Informally.″
″Right. Let's go.″
Just as they got up, the phone on the desk rang again. Leo picked it up. ″Hello?″ His brows knitted together. ″When? Right now? Are you alright, I'll be right there. I'm glad to hear it.″
″What is it?″
″Chief Brooks.″ Leo had a smile on his face as he hung up. ″He's stirring. He's regaining consciousness.″
″That's excellent!″ Joy felt relief and gladness mix in her heart. ″Poor Chief must have one big headache.″
″That was Betsy on the line. She thought she heard him asking for me,″ Leo said. ″I'm going there right away.″
″I'll come, too,″ Joy agreed.
″Maybe not,″ Leo said. ″They're only going to allow family and law enforcement right now. You're neither. Might be best if you sat this one out. It's lunch time, anyway. I can meet you right after at Cafe Ricci’s. What do you say?″
Joy hesitated for a second, then looked at the time. ″Alright. I'll see you later,″ she said.
Leo looked a little surprised that she'd agreed so easily. He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder, nodded and took off. Reluctantly, Joy headed out, too.
It was lunch time but Joy wasn't the slightest bit hungry. As she drove down to Main Street to look for parking, all Joy could think about was what Chief Brooks might say to Leo. They were close to getting answers - so close. She could feel it. Idly, Joy wondered how Aurora was doing. On impulse, she dialed Aurora's phone, but gave up when it went unanswered after several rings.
Meanwhile, her thoughts had wandered over to Teresa and Jonah. Joy leaned her head back on her seat and sat still in her parked car. Jonah had lied to her and Aurora. That much was obvious. He was involved with stealing the dog statue…at least, Hilda had been sure enough of it to ask private detectives for help. But…why? The dog wasn't valuable. It didn't have a secret compartment or anything either, Joy was sure. She'd checked very thoroughly. It just didn't make sense. She sighed. Her mind was a mess. If Aurora had been here, she'd have encouraged Joy to clean it up.
Very well, then. Joy decided to try. What did she know about this whole mess? Chief Brooks had almost died, Teresa was definitely dead, and so was Hilda. Hilda had died when someone snuck into her house and switched her medicines. Teresa had died in a car accident while drunk. Chief Brooks’ accident was clearly sabotage - someone had deliberately put ice on his stairs.
Now, Hilda had been investigating Jonah. Teresa had been helping Jonah with something, too. As for Chief Brooks, he'd been looking into a cold case involving a body found long ago near Tanner farms. That last bit was the most interesting of all, yet Joy couldn't figure out how to tie it in. The cold case involved a foreigner who was never identified.
One thing was clear: all the paths led back to Jonah. Jonah, who had lied and avoided their questions at every turn. Suddenly gunning the engine, Joy decided to head to Jonah's place immediately. It was time to ask him some tough questions. Part of her knew she should wait for Leo, but the bloodhound in her was on the scent and she couldn't just drop a lead. Leo would understand. Hopefully.
The Tanner farm looked totally isolated. Joy hadn't seen a single worker on her way over, nor were there any other cars parked by the house. Looked like everyone was taking the day off. She knocked on the front door, only for it to slowly creak open under her hand. The inside of the house was cool and dark. Taking a gulp of air, Joy tip-toed in. Nobody was around. The main hall was dark, with some stray sunbeams filtering in through the curtained windows. They fell on framed portraits of the Tanner family. Jonah as a little boy holding up a fish. Jonah's parents wearing wedding finery, caught mid-dance. Alex Tanner, the founder, with his arm slung over the shoulders of a man Joy vaguely recognized but couldn't quite place.
″What do you want?″ a voice said, and Joy jumped a foot into the air. A lamp switched on. She saw a haggard-looking Jonah sitting in an armchair. His face was shadowed and hard. His eyes bored into her.
″You again,″ he said. ″Why won't you leave me alone?″
″You lied to me and Aurora that day,″ Joy said. ″I know everything, Jonah. I know Teresa had borrowed a bunch of World War 2 books. I know she was trying to help you. I know about the body found near Tanner farms years ago.″
Jonah inhaled deeply and got up. For the first time, Joy noticed just how much he towered over her. His hands were the powerful hands of a farmer who'd baled hay and worked in the fields all his life. Hands that had killed chickens and pigs and sheep in their time. Had Jonah killed humans, too?
Joy refused to be cowed, however.
″Well?″ she asked. ″What do you have to say? Chief Brooks is waking up from his coma today. Your days in the wild are numbered.″
″What can I say? What can I say? All I can say is you've never loved like I have, never been loved like I have. Rosa is everything to me,″ Jonah said. ″Everything I do is for her.″
″So you admit what you did, then?″
″I admit nothing.″ Jonah sneered. ″Go call your cop buddies.″
″Just tell me what Teresa did wrong,″ Joy probed. ″She was trying to help you, wasn't she? What is it about the statue that had you so obsessed?″
″It was Hilda's fault. All of it,″ Jonah said. ″She's the one who kept torturing me with implications and threats. Blackmail. Not the kind of blackmail that could be bought off by money, either. That old hag was torturing me simply to see me writhe in pain. All because of some old grudge she had. I couldn't stand it. I had to know. Teresa was the one who confirmed my worst suspicions.″ Jonah put his hands to his temple. ″Teresa and her encyclopedic knowledge of World War 2.″
″I still don't get how it ties in with the statue, unless...″
Joy's eyes fell on the family portraits again, focusing suddenly on Alex Tanner. Alex Tanner! What did she know about him? The same things everyone in town did. One, that he had emigrated to America after World War 2. Second, that Hilda hated him for abandoning her at the altar. Joy stared at the photograph. Alex Tanner grinned defiantly at the camera with his arm slung around a man's shoulders. That man was Henry Braithwhite. In the picture, the two men stood in the same room that Joy was now standing in. On the mantelpiece in the background was a statue of a dog. A very familiar statue.
″Your grandfather,″ Joy said, slowly putting it together. ″He moved here after the war. But he wasn't alone. Henry Braithwhite moved with him. They were pals.″
Jonah nodded. ″So they were.″
The shards Joy and Chief Brooks had found in the garden now made sense. ″There were two of them. The statues,″ Joy said. ″Two identical statues. One belonged to your grandfather and one to Henry Braithwhite. Isn't that right? You smashed one of the statues the day you came to our house. The day you hit Aurora on the head and burgled us.″
Jonah hung his head. He stayed silent.
″Let me see if I can get this straight,″ Joy said. ″Long before Hilda died, she was blackmailing you. She was threatening to reveal a family secret that would destroy the Tanner reputation. A reputation that's important to you because sustaining your farm depends on it. So you started stealing Emmanuel from Hilda. She never told you what the statue's secret was, so you stole it and replaced it multiple times, each time failing to figure it out.″
Jonah nodded.
″After Hilda died, you decided you needed help. Teresa was still in love with you. You stole the keys of Hilda's mansion from Rosa's purse - that's why she couldn't find them that day when Aurora and I visited. Then you convinced Teresa to steal that dog statue for you. So she could tell you what it meant and then you could get rid of it once and for all. Only Aurora and I saw it in her backseat and took it from her. When you heard that, you decided to come over to our house and steal it back. You're the one who hit Aurora on the head that night. You smashed one statue so that
we'd think it was gone forever. But imagine your frustration when Rosa, not knowing the truth, simply handed us the other statue the next day. Oh, you must have been mad.″
Jonah gave a bark of harsh laughter. ″Fate. Fate was against me.″
″The powers that be don't favor murderers,″ Joy said. ″I feel worst for poor Teresa. She was in love with you and you murdered her. How? Did you force her to drink and then cut the brake lines on that car of yours? I suspect so.″
Jonah looked up, startled. ″Teresa's death was an accident.″
″Forensics is still out on that one. We should find out soon enough if the car was tampered with,″ she said. ″And Chief Brooks. That was no accident, was it? We know that for a fact. Betsy said she lost her spare house keys a year ago. Around the same time that Chief Brooks sold you his old Ford. The same Ford that Teresa was driving. My bet is that you found those house keys under one of the car seats or in the glove box or something. That's how you snuck into Chief Brooks' house.″
Jonah was very pale. ″You think you're so smart.″
″The only question I couldn't answer - not for a while - was why,″ Joy said. ″Why all this over a statue? But now that I think about it, it's been staring me in the face all along. World War 2. Teresa being an expert on it. Your grandfather, Alex Tanner. He was never a war hero who emigrated from France. No. He was a German. A Nazi. So was Henry Braithwhite. The statue was probably the only memento they kept from the war. An unimportant trinket, that somehow led to them being discovered. First by a foreign agent, who Alex Tanner killed. Then, years and years later, by Hilda Braithwhite. I'm right, aren't I?″
Jonah gave her a wry grin. ″Teresa was the one who figured it out. Hitler was very fond of dogs, apparently. He gave high ranking officials mementos sometimes. Yes. My grandfather was a bad man. So was Henry Braithwhite.″
″Hilda didn't care much if she revealed it to the town. She had enough money to not care. But your reputation, your business…it would be shattered,″ Joy mused. ″That's why you killed her, didn't you?″
″No comment.″ Jonah sighed, sitting back down. ″Why don't you just call the cops, Joy? It's all over now.″
″Is it?″ Joy looked at him piercingly, for the first time seeing beyond his size and intimidating muscles, to the miserable man underneath. ″Are you really going to confess, Jonah? Are you really willing to go to jail for the rest of your life?″
″Seems like that's my only choice,″ Jonah said.
″All because you love Rosa,″ Joy said. ″After everything, you still love her?″
Jonah gave her a startled glance. He made as if to stand up, but it was as though weakness were flooding him. He sunk back into the armchair. ″I love Rosa,″ he said. ″I always will. No matter what.″
″Wow,″ Joy marveled. ″What a mess. What a tangled mess.″
28
The Jewelry Box
Russell led Aurora up the stairs and into Hilda's bedroom. He didn't make a big deal about the gun in his pocket, but Aurora felt its presence throughout nevertheless. With each step she took, she felt as though she were closer to death. Dread and fear pooled in her stomach as he shut the door quietly behind them. Yet some part of Aurora was madly curious to know. To know the truth once and for all. So Russell had killed Hilda. It had to be him. Now he was here with a gun, possibly planning to kill Aurora and Rosa, too.
Silently, Russell picked up the jewelry box and bent over it. He muttered under his breath as he fiddled with it. Squinting hard, he concentrated every inch of his attention on the box. Aurora, in the meanwhile, slowly inched away from him.
There was a small night table upon which sat a heavy statue. Aurora's hand sneaked up to the statue and slowly tightened around it. She cast a sharp gaze upon Russell. He had completely forgotten about Aurora now and was bent over the jewelry box.
The door to Hilda's bedroom slowly came ajar. Aurora saw a terrified looking Rosa standing there with a kitchen knife in her hand. Aurora felt suddenly fond of her. Good of Rosa to try and come rescue her. Shaking her head, Aurora put a finger to her lips. She'd handle Russell with a blow to the head - there was no need for further bloodshed. Rosa seemed to get the message. She made no move to enter the room.
There was a series of clicks, and Russell gave a triumphant cry. ″Here it is!″ he said, holding aloft a piece of paper, waving it around like a madman. ″I knew it had to be here! I knew it!″
Rushing forward, Aurora put all her strength into the blow. The statue caught Russell on the side of his temple and bounced off. His eyes widened in shock and his mouth fell open. Then, almost comically, he fell straight backwards onto the floor. The piece of paper in his hand fluttered away across the room. Aurora stood panting over him, statue still raised.
The door slammed open and Rosa rushed in, holding the knife. When she saw that Russell was unconscious, she bent down and began to rifle through his pockets.
″Good idea. Get that gun and call the police, too.″ Aurora sighed with relief. ″He's got your cell phone in his back pocket, I think.″
Rosa nodded, still searching. Aurora, out of a force of habit, picked up the piece of paper that had fallen from Russell's hand. She frowned. It was torn. A torn piece of paper. As she scanned through it, Aurora's eyes widened.
She knew this paper, because Rosa had given her the other half earlier. Taking that scrap out of her pocket, Aurora joined them together. The letter was now complete.
Teresa,
I am still wondering whether to call the police or not. At the end of the day, however, one thing is clear: the truth must come out. I know how fragile a reputation is here in Bent River. But I don't care. This has gone on long enough now. I repeat: the truth must and will come out.
I'm old enough that I will not be affected. I recognize that you are very fond of Jonah and do not wish to see him suffer. Suffer he will, when people find out that his grandfather was a Nazi, and that the statue of the dog was actually a gift from Hitler. But that's life, isn't it? Suffering is a part of it. I'll suffer, too, when it is revealed that Henry was also a Nazi. But you don't see me caring. At my age, a clean conscience is what one wants. Of course, if it ends with Rosa leaving Jonah and moving back in with me, that would lessen my suffering a little. Meanwhile, I know you love Jonah enough to take him back no matter what. Isn't a little suffering worth a lifetime of happiness? So I urge you again, let me reveal everything to people. It's best for everyone.
Fondly,
Hilda
Aurora stared at Rosa, open mouthed. ″Rosa, you…you said you found that half of the letter downstairs under the desk. That was a lie.″
Rosa was leaning against the chest of drawers, smiling. Russell's gun was now in her hand. ″I said that, did I?″ She laughed. ″Well, I suppose I was getting desperate. Trying to pin the crimes on Teresa seemed like a logical course of action. Now, I guess I'll have to pin them on Russell. The poor idiot. It's a stroke of luck for me, really.″
″I don't understand,″ Aurora said. ″Hilda…Hilda was going to prove that Alex Tanner was a Nazi?″
Rosa's face clouded, her lips bared into a snarl. ″She was horrible. Horrible. She couldn't stand to see me happy with Jonah. All because of her bitterness at never having truly gotten over Alex. She was ready to torch her own reputation in order to affect Jonah's. Well, at her age, she didn't care a bit about reputations. But Jonah has his whole life ahead of him.″
″Does Jonah know you killed her?″ Aurora asked.
″He didn't. Not at first. Now, I think he sometimes wonders.″ Rosa sighed. ″But that hasn't stopped him from loving me. He really loves me, Aurora. You won't ever have a love like that, and I pity you for it.″
″If you're going to kill me, could you at least explain it all to me first?″ Aurora asked. ″It's all so confusing.″
″There's nothing to be confused about,″ Rosa said. ″When Hilda saw that Jonah and I were getting serious, she threatened him. Jonah, poor sod, stole the dog
from her more than once trying to see if there was a secret compartment or something in it. It wasn't until later that he realized that the dog itself was the object of attention. It was an old Nazi trophy of his grandfather's, and Henry Braithwhite had one just like it. It flew under the radar because there were no obvious swastikas or symbolism. But Teresa, being the history geek she is…was…I guess she recognized it. That snake was always trying to steal Jonah from me.″
″I don't think she recognized it at first,″ Aurora said. ″I think Jonah went to her for help because he knew she loved history. I think Teresa had to research a lot before she understood what the dog was.″
″Does it matter?″ Rosa shrugged. ″When Aunt Hilda told me what she was planning to do, I knew I had to get rid of her. It wasn't my fault, really.″
″You murdered her!″ Aurora exclaimed.
Rosa winced. ″I'm no murderer. I'm an artist. I'm a sensitive soul. Russell, the fool, actually thought I'd murder my own aunt for money. No. That's not who I am. I have character. I told you earlier: I would go broke and starve before murdering someone for money.″
″Ah, but love? You'd happily murder for love,″ Aurora said. ″More than once, even.″
Rosa nodded. ″You catch on quick. It was so easy to put Hilda out of her misery. I thought we could all finally live in peace. But Teresa was still slithering about…so I spiked her drink with alcohol and loosened a few parts in the car. My parents used to own a garage, you know. I grew up fiddling with cars. It worked, too. The police totally bought it. After all, alcoholics like her get into car crashes all the time. And I guess she was such an old drunk she didn’t even have any tastebuds left to detect the alcohol. Either that or she subconciously wanted to get blasted. Who cares?″ Rosa laughed. ″But then, when I thought Jonah was finally all mine, Chief Brooks began to ask a few too many questions. He even got out an old cold case that should have been long forgotten.″ Rosa shrugged. ″So I did what I had to do. I snuck into his house with the keys I'd found in the Ford - lucky break on my part - and arranged a little accident. Too bad it didn't kill the old—″
Alibis & Arranging Page 13
