“Laura, can I ask you something?” I asked. The window shades were drawn, and the room was dark. I hoped she wouldn’t keep the room this way for long. It was depressing, and that was the last thing she needed.
She nodded. “Of course, dear. What is it?”
“When you were in the candy store the other day, you said Ellie hadn’t been home the night before her body was found. Did you ever find out where she had been?” Ethan wouldn’t know the approximate time of death until the medical examiner had done the autopsy, but I wondered if she had discovered anything new about her sister’s whereabouts since we had last talked.
She shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not. I think she had to have gone to that infernal party house and died the day before. But I’ll tell you, she wouldn’t have gone up those stairs on her own.”
“Why wouldn’t she?” I asked.
“Because she had terrible vertigo. She hasn’t been upstairs here in her own house in years. She didn’t trust that she wouldn’t have a spell and tumble down the stairs. She avoided them like the plague.” She nodded for emphasis. “We made up the spare bedroom downstairs for her.”
“She had vertigo?” I asked. “You know that I found her at the bottom of the stairs, then?”
Her eyes widened. “You found her? Land sakes, I’m sorry dear. That must have been a sight. Ethan told me it looked like she had taken a tumble down the stairs, but he didn’t mention that you had found her.”
I nodded. “It was shocking,” I admitted. “Did you mention to Ethan that she had vertigo?”
“I told him immediately. Told him it was severe, too. No way did my sister go up those stairs on her own. She wouldn’t do it. She once fell down the three steps we have off the back patio. Since then, she’s stayed away from stairs.”
That was interesting. Her neck had appeared to be broken, but now I wondered if it was something else that had killed her. Maybe the killer had beaten her, or she had taken a blow to the head. The medical examiner would find that out, of course, but it made me wonder.
“I’m sure Ethan will look into that,” Mom said. “I wonder how she ended up at the top of those stairs?”
“I think she must have been forced up there,” Laura said, nodding. “She was so stubborn, that if she didn’t want to do something, you couldn’t make her unless you threatened her with dire consequences. I’ve been thinking about it, and I bet someone held a gun to her head to make her go up there.”
“Do you really think so?” Mom asked, sounding a little skeptical. I was skeptical, too. If someone had a gun, they could have shot her. But then, if they pushed her down the stairs, it might still look like an accident. Except for those lights. Maybe the killer hadn’t been thinking and turned them off, not realizing they had just pointed the police to suspicion of murder.
Laura nodded seriously. “I do think so. You don’t know how stubborn my sister was. Why, that’s why her marriage fell apart. She made up her mind that she wouldn’t do anything her husband wanted, and it drove him away.” She sighed. “Some people have no common sense. My sister certainly didn’t.”
“I would think someone would have seen her around town if she hadn’t died that night,” I said thoughtfully. It might have been true that she had actually died the night before. “When time was the last time you saw her?”
“At about 12:30 that day. She didn’t come home that evening, just like I told you. We had a lunch of tuna fish sandwiches, and I said I was laying down for a nap when we finished. She said she was going to do some Christmas shopping. Said she needed to get her daughter a jewelry box from the jewelry store.” She shrugged. “I woke up at two o’clock and she still wasn’t home.”
“Why didn’t you report her missing when she didn’t come home that evening?” Mom asked.
She shrugged again. “I’ve seen on the television that a person needs to be missing twenty-four hours before the police will take it seriously. And besides, it wasn’t the first time she’d done it. I told Mia the other day when I stopped in at the candy store that she does it now and then. She meets up with a man and I won’t see her for a day or two. Boy-crazy, that one was.”
“When you were in the candy store, you mentioned she had met up with a man. Who did you say she was with?” I asked.
“Did I say that? No, she wasn’t with a man that I know of. She went Christmas shopping. I meant that she might have met up with a man. She’d been making googly eyes at Brent Downs, but I don’t think there was anything to it.”
“That’s right,” I said, remembering the conversation now.
She was quiet a moment. “I’ll tell you something. If I had to guess at who might have killed my sister, I’d guess Charlie O’Rourke.”
“Who’s that?” I asked, trying to come up with a face to go with the name.
“Ellie’s son-in-law. He’s a dirty dog, that one. A few months ago, he asked Ellie to loan him some money. I don’t like to pry, but I heard him say he needed five thousand dollars. Ellie laughed at him and told him there was no way he was going to get it, and he’s been fuming ever since.”
“What did he need the money for?” I asked.
“Said he wanted to do some repairs on his house. Apparently the electrical needed to be replaced. Ellie has never liked him, and she said she wasn’t going to give it to him,” she said. Then she looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Look at me talking about Ellie like she’s still with us. That will take some getting used to.”
I smiled. “Have you spoken to Charlie O’Rourke since he asked for the money?” I asked.
“Yes, I ran into him at the grocery store a few weeks ago. He cussed Ellie and said she was tight-fisted. Said he couldn’t believe she didn’t want her own daughter to live in a safe house where the electrical wouldn’t suddenly go off and spark a fire and kill the two of them. I never liked Charlie. I don’t blame Ellie for not giving it to him. He’s wasteful with money. Last year he bought a brand-new car that he couldn’t afford.” She made a tsk-tsk sound and shook her head. “He should have used the money he spent on the car to fix his house.”
“Some people don’t think things through,” Mom said. “Especially when they’re young.”
She nodded. “He’s always wasting money. He bought an above ground swimming pool last summer and then never cleaned it at the end of the season. The thing is ruined, I’m sure.”
“Where does Charlie work?” I asked.
“At the car dealership on the outskirts of town. He’s a salesman there and that should tell you all there is to know about him. He’s not to be trusted.” She shook her head sadly again. “I don’t know what I’ll do without my Ellie. We’ve been together since we were conceived. I shouldn’t say this, but I have some hazy memories of being in the womb with her.” She chuckled. “I know it sounds crazy, but I tell you, I do.”
I was shocked by this admission. Did she really believe she could remember back into the womb?
“They say twins have an incredible bond with one another,” Mom said, glancing at me.
“We do. We really do.” She clasped her hands together and twiddled her thumbs. “Or we did. I don’t know where her death leaves me now. Am I still a twin? I suppose so.”
“Of course you are,” Mom assured her. “Death doesn’t change anything. She’s still your sister even if she isn’t here with you.”
Laura looked at Mom appreciatively, a tear in her eye.
We stayed and visited with Laura a while longer before leaving. I decided I was going to have a talk with Charlie O’Rourke and see what he had to say about the things Laura said about him. And if Ellie’s vertigo was as bad as Laura said it was, I doubted she would have climbed those stairs willingly. That meant someone was diabolical enough to either lure her up them or force her up them, then shove her down the stairs. The idea made me shudder.
Chapter Seven
The following day I decided that I needed to check out new cars. My car was only four years old and ran great, but who d
oesn’t at least want to dream about a new car for Christmas? The dealership had to be running specials this time of year and even though I had no intention of buying one, it didn’t hurt to look. And check out one Charlie O’Rourke.
When I pulled up to the car dealership, there were three other customers looking over the cars. I hoped Charlie was around and that he would be free to talk.
Christy had reminded me that Charlie had been two years ahead of me in school. When she was a freshman, Charlie was a senior and she had had a crush on him. But Charlie hadn’t given her the time of day, and her crush quickly turned to disdain, so she rode along with me to point him out.
“That’s him,” she whispered as we looked at the specs on a new Dodge Durango. I looked to my left and saw a sandy-haired man coming toward us.
“Good morning, Ladies,” he said with that car salesman tone, “how are we today?”
His name tag said Charlie. I smiled at him. Charlie O’Rourke looked like your typical boy-next-door. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, and handsome. A memory came flooding back. He had stood up one of my friends when we were in the tenth grade and the two of us had held a grudge until after he graduated. Turns out I did remember him after all.
“Hi, Charlie. How are you today?” I said it in a tone that said I knew exactly who he was.
He looked at me, puzzled. His eyes went to Christy and recognition dawned. “Let’s see, Mia,” he said pointing at me. “And Christy.” He pointed at her.
I nodded. “That’s right.”
He grinned, having obviously forgotten standing up my friend and being unkind to Christy. “Well, how have you two been? I don’t think I’ve seen either of you since high school. Doesn’t high school seem like it was decades ago?”
“You’ve seen me,” Christy said dryly. “My husband bought a car from you two years ago.”
He looked at her, his smile waning a bit, but he recovered quickly and gave us a used car salesman grin. “Sorry, you’re right. I do remember. He bought a Challenger, didn’t he?”
“A Charger,” Christy corrected. She looked him up and down and nearly snorted her disgust. My sister was taking no prisoners today.
He nodded. “Of course. What can I help you ladies with today?” He turned to me in hopes I’d be friendlier.
“I don’t know. We’re just looking. Christmas is right around the corner and we thought it would be nice to have a new car.” I wasn’t lying. It would be nice to have a new car. We just weren’t getting one.
“Well, Dodge is offering a two thousand dollar rebate on Challengers. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an extra two-grand to do the rest of your Christmas shopping?” he asked. “They get great gas mileage.”
That was a lie. I wouldn’t call nineteen miles to the gallon great gas mileage. “Looks nice,” I said. “I’ve always wanted a Challenger.” That was another lie, but I didn’t care. When I remembered Charlie, I remembered that I didn’t like him.
“You can’t go wrong with a Dodge. Would you like to take it for a test drive?” We were standing in front of a charcoal gray Challenger and it looked really nice. Maybe one day, I thought.
“Maybe,” I said as I walked over to a red Challenger and looked it over. “This is nice.”
“The Challenger is sporty,” he said. “You’d look fine driving this around town. Everyone in town would turn to look at who was driving this car.”
Yuck. I didn’t need anyone pumping up my ego. “I suppose.”
“We have one in black on the other side of the lot. You really need to test drive it to get the feel of it. It’s a sexy car.”
I turned and looked at him. “Charlie O’Rourke. Didn’t you marry Shelly Adams?”
His smile faltered, but he quickly regained it. “Sure did. Right out of high school. We dated throughout high school, you know.”
That was another lie. Charlie played the field as hard and fast as he could. He must have thought I was an idiot and wouldn’t remember. “Really? I don’t remember that. I heard her mom was murdered. How awful. Will you tell her I’m sorry to hear it?”
His smile relaxed. “Yeah, poor Ellie was found dead in the party house, but I don’t think she was murdered. I mean, the police seem to think that, but really, she fell down the stairs. There wasn’t any murder.”
“How can you be so sure?” Christy asked, folding her arms across her chest and leaning on the red Challenger.
He shrugged. “I just think it’s common sense. Those stairs are steep. Have you seen them? Ellie wasn’t exactly in her prime, you know. It wouldn’t have taken much for her to miss one of those steps and fall down them.”
“Yeah, I get that the stairs are steep, but why was she even there by herself?” Christy asked. “An elderly woman climbing stairs in a house that she didn’t belong in? Sounds suspicious to me.”
He shrugged again. “She was helping decorate. Look, Ellie wasn’t that old, but still, she had problems with getting dizzy. Vertigo. It wouldn’t have taken much for her to take a tumble down those stairs.”
I moved on to the next car, a white Dodge Durango, and looked at the sticker. “Seems like someone with a condition like vertigo would avoid steep stairs, especially if she was by herself with no one to help her if she did fall. I can’t imagine her climbing those stairs if she had a medical condition like vertigo.”
He considered this. “I guess you’re right. But you didn’t know Ellie. She was stubborn. When she wanted something, she got it. I imagine she got it in her head that she was going to help out down there and it didn’t matter that she had a condition like vertigo.”
I turned and looked at him. “She was that stubborn?”
He snorted. “You don’t know the half of it. When Shelly and I got married, it all had to be Ellie’s way. And I mean, everything had to be her way. I told Shelly we should just elope, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She would have to face her mother when we got back, and she just couldn’t do it.”
“What does that mean? Everything had to be her way?” I asked.
He gave me a grim smile. “She picked out Shelly’s wedding dress and everything that had to do with the wedding. Can you believe it? Weddings are personal, and she had no business saying anything about it, but she insisted, and Shelly caved.”
Ellie picking out Shelly’s dress was odd. “Why didn’t you just tell her no?” I asked.
He shrugged and looked away, shoving his hands into his pockets, then looked back at me. “Shelly was pregnant, and Ellie paid for the wedding, so Shelly felt like she couldn’t tell her no.” His mouth made a hard line. “I would rather have just gone to the justice of the peace and forgotten about all the wedding stuff. We didn’t need that.”
I nodded. “I think I’d have to agree with you on that. The wedding dress is very personal and shouldn’t be picked out by someone other than the bride. She could have given her opinion, but Shelly should have had the final say.”
He looked at me and nodded. “That’s the truth. I do think Ellie had an accident though. She was just that stubborn, like I said. But if someone did murder her, the first person that came to mind when I heard about it was Harper Casper.”
The name sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure who he was talking about. “Who’s that?”
“She used to work here cleaning the office after hours, but I caught her stealing supplies out of the break room. Coffee, creamer, and hand soap. Just ordinary inexpensive things like that. I came in early on a Saturday morning, and she was helping herself, so I reported her, and she got fired.”
“Really? Seems kind of stupid to lose a job over inexpensive things like that,” Christy said, still sounding surly. Getting rejected in the ninth grade wasn’t something she was going to easily let go of.
“You can say that again. But I saw her loading those things into her car. She had some cleaning supplies, too. That’s what she does. She’s a professional cleaning woman.” He laughed. “I bet her parents are real proud their little girl grew up to be a cleaning wo
man, and a thief.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Being a cleaning woman, or man for that matter, was honest work. Unless, of course, you stole from the job, in which case it became dishonest work. “What did she say when you caught her?”
“She insisted she was just borrowing them and that the owner, Jim Preston, had given her permission. I said I would ask Jim if that was true and then she got scared and gave me a sob story. She didn’t have any money and was going to replace the items the following month when she got paid.” He snorted. “A thief is a thief and you can’t trust them. I told Jim, and he fired her.”
“Why do you think she would want to kill Ellie?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “Because Ellie dated Harper’s father and when Ellie told her father that Harper was an alcoholic, he tried to force her into rehab. Harper was livid about it. I can’t say I blame her, either. When Harper found out Ellie was my mother-in-law, she used to say terrible things about her. She said someone needed to shut that old woman’s mouth for good.”
I nodded, taking this in. “I guess I don’t blame Harper for being angry about that.”
“I still stand by what I said about her having an accident and falling down the stairs. But then I thought, if I’m wrong about it, Harper may have done just what she said she thought should happen to Ellie. She shut her mouth permanently.”
I considered this. “Thanks, Charlie. We’ve got to get going now.”
“Wait, aren’t you going to test drive the Challenger?”
“Not today. We’ve got to get to work. Our mother will be wondering where we are.”
He sighed and narrowed his eyes at us. “Well don’t forget about that cash back offer. It’s good until Christmas.”
“Sure,” I said, and we headed back to my car. A new car would be fun, but neither of us could afford it right now.
“I don’t believe him,” Christy said when we got in my car.
“Why?”
“Because he’s always been a snake. He’s a car salesman, for goodness sake. And why insist Ellie had an accident and then turn around and say he thinks this Harper Casper killed her? Something’s fishy.”
Confectionately Dead Page 4
