The Ghost and the Dead Deb

by KIMBERLY, ALICE

  “GOOD GOD, JACK, what do I do?” I silently asked, trying not to lose it.

  Guess, he answered in my head.

  Swallowing a lump of sheer terror, I attempted to feign cool Jack Shepard control, then stepped out of the Jaguar, shut the car door, and faced Kiki. Meeting her stare, I flashed a (thoroughly fake) confident smile and levelly told her, “Sarcasm doesn’t suit a woman who tried to run down Angel Stark on the very night she was murdered.”

  Kiki winced, then looked at her fiancé—worry and confusion suddenly invading the typically superior expression of her ice-blue gaze.

  Beautiful, doll. Keep going.

  “Oh, you were quick,” I said, “but not quick enough. There were witnesses to that incident on Cranberry Street. And I think the police will find it a neat coincidence, your staying at the same inn on the same night as Angel Stark—who just happened to turn up dead on that very property the next day.”

  A sudden gust stirred long blonde strands of Kiki’s hair and the gauzy blue fabric of her sundress. Her already pale features turned snow white. Her pink painted lips moved, but no sound emerged.

  Florid-faced, Ashley McClure-Sutherland pushed past her cousin and stepped between us. “This is ridiculous,” she cried. “How dare you invade my home and intimidate members of my own family. My God, Penelope, you’re nothing but trouble. My family’s curse.”

  It was a vicious remark, but I refused to be baited by my sister-in-law. I bored in on Kiki instead.

  “Did you know Victoria Banks has also been murdered?” I asked. “It happened within hours of Angel’s demise, and she was strangled in the same manner—just like her sister Bethany.”

  Kiki literally fell against her fiancé. Ashley appeared to be struck dumb, for perhaps the first time in her life.

  Pour it on thick, doll. They’re on the ropes, Jack coaxed.

  Finally, Donald Easterbrook spoke. “Where did this happen?” His rich baritone seemed unruffled by my revelations.

  “Victoria’s corpse was discovered in a wooded area outside the motel in Quindicott this morning.”

  I locked eyes with Kiki again. “I watched the State Police haul her dead body to the morgue on my way to Newport.” I paused to let the words sink in. “Don’t you find it odd that Victoria’s murder occurred so close to Quindicott, where Kiki chose to stay the night?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that our confrontation was beginning to attract attention. Kiki shifted her gaze from her fiancé to Ashley, then back to me.

  Reaching a hand into the pocket of my capri pants, I grasped that old buffalo nickel. “Jack? I have to get them to talk to me. What more can I say?”

  Threaten them with the cops, baby. Do it loudly.

  “So let’s call the police,” I said with a raised voice. “Because if you don’t talk to me now, you can talk to the police when they arrive.”

  Donald Easterbrook’s dark eyes flashed, but he quickly masked his annoyance with a smile. His strong, tanned hand closed on my arm.

  “If you want to talk, let’s do it inside,” he said smoothly.

  He released me before I could yank my arm free. With Ashley flanking me, I followed Donald and his fiancée through a side door into the mansion.

  Ashley caught up with Donald, spun to face him. “I don’t think this is a good idea.” She glared at me. “Not at all.”

  “This won’t take long, Mrs. Sutherland. We’ll go to the library,” said Donald.

  I half expected Ashley to butt out, but she angrily followed the rest of us into Windswept’s bookroom. The large two-story space was lined with polished oak shelves. Aging, gilt-edged books filled those shelves, and high-backed, green velvet upholstered chairs, ornate book stands, and Tiffany lamps were scattered about the waxed and polished hardwood floor. One corner of the room was dominated by a large Victorian standing globe with brass fittings. Sun streamed through high windows, warming the room, which smelled faintly of dust.

  “Sit down, Mrs. McClure, won’t you?” Donald said with a chivalry that surprised me, considering the circumstances.

  Ask for a drink, advised Jack.

  “But I’m not thirsty,” I silently told him.

  Baby, wise up. Alcohol loosens tongues, remember? Ask for some yourself. Pretend to sip yours. Chances are, Prince Donald will join you—and do more than pretend to sip.

  Jack was right. I boldly asked for a cognac and got one. Donald went to a small bar in the corner and fixed a round, including Kiki, Ashley, and himself.

  I sat rigidly in one of the high-backed green velvet chairs. Ashen-faced Kiki sat in an antique love seat opposite me. Ashley chose to pace the hand-woven Aubusson area rug. Finally, Donald Easterbrook sat down on the love seat next to his fiancée. He leaned forward, dark eyes studying me. For a moment we faced one another in silence.

  Despite the malice radiating from my sister-in-law, and the rage in Kiki’s eyes, I felt no such hostility from Donald. I read somewhere once that anger and animosity often spring from a lack of confidence. Donald Easterbrook had no such deficit. Poised, polite, and self-assured, he seemed in control of the situation. Though half the age of my sister-in-law, Donald had handled Ashley better than I ever could. And by dragging us into the mansion, I realized he’d handled me well too.

  It was Donald who broke the silence. After a long sip of his cognac, he asked, “Why do you think Kiki killed Angel Stark?”

  “It goes back to Bethany’s murder,” I replied. “Someone in your circle murdered Bethany Banks. Angel said as much in her book, and I believe her.”

  “Someone else was arrested for that crime,” said Donald.

  “And he was acquitted,” I pointed out.

  “Released because of legal technicalities,” he corrected.

  “He was an innocent patsy and you and I both know it, Mr. Easterbrook. You have more of a motive for murdering Bethany than Johnny Napoli. She was your fiancée and was cheating on you when she rendezvoused with Johnny that night.”

  “So why do you suspect Kiki?” Donald pressed.

  “Three reasons. The first is that she had a better motive than anyone else. After Bethany’s murder, Kiki became engaged to you.”

  “We’ll let that go for a moment. Tell me the second reason.”

  “Angel’s book made a lot of people angry. Some of them were mad enough to confront her. Her publicity manager told me a doctor she identified as a pill pusher to your set nearly assaulted Angel in a Manhattan bookstore. Victoria Banks almost attacked Angel in my own store the other night. And someone driving the black Jaguar outside tried to run down Angel Stark an hour later.”

  “Your point?” Donald asked.

  I shifted my gaze to Kiki. “You were in my store the night Angel gave her reading. You were staying in the same bed and breakfast as Angel, when you could just as easily have been staying here at Windswept.”

  “Kiki had car trouble,” Ashley cried. “She got stuck in Quindicott!”

  “Nice story, but I don’t buy it,” I replied, my eyes never wavering from Kiki’s. “I think Kiki confronted Angel in her own time—after the book signing, back at the Finch Inn. And I think that’s when Kiki murdered her. She was the only person in your circle besides Victoria Banks who was anywhere near Quindicott that night. And I think Vicky Banks is now off everyone’s suspect list.”

  “But you’re wrong!” Kiki cried. “I saw Hal there, too. Hal McConnell.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Hal McConnell was at Angel’s reading? I think I would have remembered that.”

  Kiki shook her blonde mane. “Not at the store. I saw Hal at the Inn, later that night.”

  I leaned forward. “When?”

  Kiki shrugged, bit her lower lip. “I don’t know, maybe one in the morning. Certainly after midnight.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  Kiki took a breath. “Because you’re correct about one thing. I was there to confront Angel. I wanted her to stop harassing us, to leave us out of her life,
her books. I was there to stop her lies.”

  “What lies, specifically?”

  Dead silence descended. Kiki’s lips became tight, Donald put his arm around her shoulder. A grandfather clock in the corner ticked louder than Big Ben.

  “Okay,” I finally said. “Kiki, tell me more about your encounter with Hal that night.”

  Kiki swept her hair back, took a fortifying sip of cognac. “I went to Angel’s room at eleven o’clock. I knocked, but she wasn’t back yet. I tried again at midnight, but she still hadn’t returned. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. Maybe a half an hour later, I heard a car park, and voices, too. I got dressed and waited for Angel to come up the stairs. After a long time I went down to the front entrance. No one was in the lobby and I went outside, onto the porch. That’s when I saw Hal in the parking lot and I called out to him.”

  “Are you sure it was Hal?” I asked.

  Kiki nodded, “I’m positive, because he came up to the porch steps and I spoke to him. It was Hal all right. Polo shirt and all.” She rolled her eyes. Donald gave a slight amused grunt.

  “What am I missing?”

  Donald shrugged. “It’s just . . . well, since he was, like, twelve years old Hal has bought like twenty Polo shirts every summer, and that’s what he wears all season. It’s become kind of a joke among us. Hal and his ubiquitous Polo shirts.”

  “You’re sure he was wearing a Polo shirt the night you saw him at the Finch Inn, the night Angel was killed?”

  “Sure,” said Kiki. “I saw it under his open windbreaker, so wrinkled and ratty it looked like he’d pulled it out of his trunk. Hal used to be a neat freak, but I hadn’t seen much of him since Bethany died. I guess things like that can affect you in a lot of ways.”

  I thought of Hal’s change of hairstyle—brushing the longish hair forward rakishly around his face instead of neatly back off his face as I’d seen it styled in all of his photos. I remembered the way he’d dressed when he’d come to the bookstore the morning after Angel’s and Victoria’s murders—well-dressed for a summer Saturday in an impeccably tailored blue blazer, his buttoned-down shirt crisp and white, his silver-and-blue striped tie perfectly knotted in a snug Windsor.

  I took a closer look at Kiki then. Her gauzy blue sundress revealed ample amounts of toned, tanned flesh—from her throat, shoulders, and arms to her long, lean legs. Her skin appeared flawless. Not one scratch or bruise that I could see.

  “What did Hal say to you?” I asked.

  “Not much,” said Kiki. “I called him over, and he said he was just passing through and wanted a room but the place was full. Said he was going to try the motel by the highway, or just go home. But I knew it was crap.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m sure he was looking for Angel, too,” insisted Kiki. “He kept eyeing her rental car in the lot, like he was waiting for her to show up.”

  Donald spoke next. “Mrs. McClure. You did say that Victoria’s body was found at that motel, didn’t you?”

  I nodded.

  “Well there you are. Hal was at both murder scenes. And he attended the ball where Bethany was murdered as well. Surely Hal is the better suspect?”

  “Except for one thing. Hal McConnell loved Bethany Banks. Angel Stark said it in her book, and Hal told me as much himself.”

  “Unrequited love, Mrs. McClure,” said Donald. “Look around at all these books. I’m willing to bet a goodly number of them tell stories of unrequited love and the tragedy that can be caused by such frustrated emotions.”

  “Oh, but Hal’s love was no longer unrequited,” I replied. “In the last few months he’d been seeing Victoria Banks. They shared an affection. Why would Hal murder a woman who returned his affections?” I shook my head. “Anyway, you’re both forgetting the black Jaguar parked outside. I doubt Hal was driving it. But someone was and that someone tried to kill Angel Stark.”

  “You forget that the black Jaguar belongs to me,” said Donald, a cagey half-smile crossing his face.

  “Are you telling me you were in Quindicott last night?” I asked.

  “That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Mrs. McClure. I drove here from Connecticut last night. I happened to breeze through Quindicott for gas. I saw Angel in the street, and we had words. So you see, Kiki had nothing to do with that encounter.”

  “What kind of words did you have exactly?”

  “I told her she made a big mistake publishing her book, that’s all.”

  I studied Donald’s attractive, confident features, thinking there was more to this. Although Angel Stark had admitted no such thing in her book, Hal McConnell claimed Angel had been sleeping with Donald.

  Remember what I showed you, baby, said Jack. A little information can take you a long way in an interrogation if you know how to use it. So use it—fast.

  “I know you and Angel were sleeping together,” I said as casually as I could manage. “But when exactly did you stop?”

  “Right before Bethany was murdered,” Donald blurted out.

  Kiki’s jaw dropped. “Donny, shut up!”

  Donald stared at me blankly.

  Good work, baby. A deer in the headlights. You’ve got him admitting to something he didn’t want to. Keep him talking, he’s probably dying to spill . . .

  “So you didn’t love Angel?” I asked. “Or did you?”

  Suddenly, Kiki went from outraged to curious. She stared at him expectantly.

  Donald’s eyes widened even more. “Of course I didn’t love her! Angel and I were hot and heavy for a few months. The sex was great. That’s all.”

  “Did Bethany know?” I asked.

  Donald shrugged, looked down at his cognac. “I think Bethany found out near the end, but she never threw it in my face if she did. I mean . . . we weren’t married yet . . . wild oats, you know . . .”

  “Sure,” I replied. “And she decided to sow some oats, too,” I replied. “And get even with you in the process. Like having a fling with a member of the catering staff right under your nose—and the noses of all your buddies—a low-class stud she knew and you knew, too, because he supplied drugs to your crowd.”

  Donald scowled. I’d hit a nerve. He shifted on the love seat, took yet another long hit of cognac. “That may be true,” he said, his eyes beginning to appear slightly glazed from the alcohol, “but the guy . . . he never had sex with Bethany . . . he never laid a finger on her.”

  You’ve definitely got something here, said Jack. A point of pride. He’s still jealous that his girl wanted to sleep with Johnny-boy. So press that button. Hard.

  I cleared my throat. “Is that what you think? That Johnny didn’t have sex with Bethany? Well, that’s wishful thinking, but that’s not what I heard from the police.”

  “Hey, whatever you heard is wrong, okay,” said Donald, his voice finally betraying tension. He pointed his finger at me. “That guy, he was a patsy. I know. Because I know who set him up. The same person who killed Bethany Banks.”

  “Oh my God!” Ashley lunged between us, wide-eyed. “Don’t say anything more,” she cried.

  “Why not, Mrs. Sutherland?” Donald replied, the pointing finger turning into a dismissive wave. “What does it matter now anyway? Beth’s dead.”

  “Sit down, Ashley,” I barked. To my amazement, she did.

  “It was Angel who killed Bethany,” said Donald. “I know because I saw Angel leave the room right after the murder. Bethany went down there to have her fling with that waiter. I got wind of it and went down to stop it. But by the time I got there, I saw that Angel had already strangled Beth. She’d killed her before that Johnny person even arrived.”

  “Why?” I asked, not yet ready to believe him.

  “She was high that night,” said Donald. “And she was crazed because . . . well . . . she wanted me to dump Bethany and marry her instead. She made this declaration to me in private . . . but that was absurd. Angel Stark was a crazy slut and I told her so. She slept with every guy I know. She was just wild oat
s, a party girl, not someone you’d marry . . . not someone in my position, anyway. Angel lied about Beth in her book, you know? Bethy didn’t sleep around. Angel was describing herself . . . a convenient fuck.”

  I looked at Kiki. Her legs were curled up under her like a gawky adolescent. She was biting her pink lips.

  “You know all this, don’t you, Kiki?” I asked.

  She gave a tense shrug. “Of course.”

  My gaze swung back to Donald. “I gather Angel wasn’t happy with your decision.”

  “That’s an understatement. Angel claimed she was going to tell the world about me cheating on Bethany, and I threatened Angel right back. I told Angel to keep her mouth shut or I’d turn her in for dealing drugs.”

  My eyebrows rose at that. I knew Angel used drugs, she’d said so in her first book. But this was the first I’d heard about her dealing them. “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because its true,” Kiki blurted out. “Angel’s been dealing drugs in our circles for years. Johnny Napoli was a Johnny-come-lately to that little business.”

  “Where’s your proof . . . for any of this?” I asked.

  “I was an eyewitness . . . I saw Angel leave that storage room,” Donald replied. “Her silk jacket was ripped, her face was flushed. When she was gone, I went inside and . . . I found Beth, lying there, not moving . . . I didn’t want to believe she was dead at first, you know? I tried to see if she was breathing, but she was dead all right . . .”

  He stopped talking, seemed lost in his own thoughts. He sipped more cognac and I pressed. “Why didn’t you tell the police what you saw? Why didn’t you tell them everything?”

  Donald sat back, shrugged. “Klaus von Bülow.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “O. J. Simpson . . . Michael Skakel . . . The media and private investigators crawl into every nook and cranny of people’s lives when there’s a high-profile murder trial. We didn’t want that. None of us. Bethany was already dead. Nothing could bring her back . . .”

  My eyes narrowed on Donald. He was an attractive charmer, but I knew he was holding back. “It was more than that, wasn’t it? Did Angel threaten you somehow?”