by Gina Dartt
After a week or so of steady interrogations and interviews, the police had figured out who exactly had done what to whom and why, but, finally, the whole story had come out. Of course Rick Johnson and the chief of police had extensively lectured Kate and Nikki regarding their interference. Only the fact that they had prevented Andrew’s imminent demise had kept the scolding from being much worse. Even Nikki was conscious of how lucky they’d been.
“But who killed Stephen, and why?” Irene’s eyes were keen, glancing back and forth between Kate and Nikki. That she was fully enjoying the whole situation was readily apparent, and Kate stifled a smile. She was getting to know a completely different side to her grandmother.
Nikki made a small sound of what might have been disgust. “When the SINs were flagged, Stephen realized the scam had gone on for too long. He wanted to shut it down immediately, confess everything, and take his lumps. Hannah might have been upset, but she probably wouldn’t have pressed embezzlement charges against him, or taken away his job, especially if he claimed he was being blackmailed, but Martin and Pat probably would have gone to jail.”
“They all let it go on for far too long,” Kate put in. “They had become comfortable with the situation…until the SINs were flagged.”
“Tiffany convinced Martin that she could keep Andrew handling the IT payroll account without becoming any the wiser. She doesn’t regard his abilities very highly, but neither she nor Martin is really a businessperson. They really didn’t know what Stephen had to do to keep this scheme going for fifteen years.”
“Pat got the chemicals they needed from work.” Kate sipped her wine. “That was their first mistake. They thought the chemical compound they came up with would make it look like a heart attack and that would be the end of it, but Hannah requested an autopsy. They thought she would be prostrate with grief, never expecting that she would demand to know why he died. When the toxicology report clearly showed an abnormality in his system, everyone, including the police, knew it was murder.”
“Martin slipped the compound into Stephen’s wine while he was distracted at the Historical Society Dinner.” Kate regretted her contribution to the distraction. Perhaps if they hadn’t attended, none of the recent events would have happened, including nearly being throttled. One good thing had come of it; Nikki finally understood her deeply imbedded fear in the wake of the cabin fire. She now possessed the same type of fear for Kate, and while it might fade after a time, for now, it still dictated certain of their actions, particularly toward each other.
“Things just went downhill from there,” Nikki concluded. “Kate and I started snooping around, but, more importantly, Hannah and Andrew were doing their best to help the police by giving them access to the company’s books. Meanwhile, Denise was doing some investigating on her own, which brought us into it.”
“Martin and Tiffany decided to solve two problems at once, not only by making it appear that the murderer and embezzler was Andrew, but by killing him at the same time, freeing Tiffany from the marriage without losing any of his estate. She and Martin were planning on an early retirement to someplace warm. I think Pat just wanted to be shed of the whole thing.”
“What happened to all the money?” Lorne asked, pouring cream into his coffee. “Did they spend it?”
“Martin lived off his.” Nikki smiled shyly at her father, obviously proud to be showing off her hard-won knowledge. Kate was just happy that her grandmother had invited the Harrises over for dinner and even happier that Nikki’s parents had accepted. “He didn’t have any income of his own, but because he was an Elliot, people, including his own grandmother, didn’t really notice that he always had money with no way to account for it.”
“What about Pat Spencer?” Irene looked faintly distressed about the boy she remembered, not having witnessed the man carrying Denise out of Andrew’s house with every intention of dumping her into the lake.
Kate sighed. “He received a lot of money on top of his regular paycheck, but, unfortunately, he has an expensive hobby that his girlfriend doesn’t know about. He likes to gamble.” That was why Pat had been in Halifax the night he had his accident. It was his biweekly visit to the casinos where he went through his extra paychecks like water through a sieve. “He just wasn’t part of the family and was always conscious of it.”
“No one goes through money like a gambler.” Irene looked unusually somber. “I feel sorry for Hannah. Her whole family has been shattered.”
“Hopefully, we’ve learned a lesson from this terrible time.” Lorne raised his glass in Nikki and Kate’s direction. He looked slightly self-conscious as he said, “Families need to stick together.”
“Amen,” Adele said as they all drank to the sentiment. She glanced at Nikki. “Are you all moved into Kate’s?”
Nikki shook her head. “I have a couple of months left on my lease. That gives me a place to store my stuff while we figure out where everything is going to go.”
Holding onto each other amid the shattered remains of Andrew’s sports memorabilia, they had silently come to a mutual agreement. They couldn’t continue to live apart. Life was too precious to waste time living alone. Once Kate was released from the hospital, where it was determined there were no lasting effects from Martin’s assault beyond sore muscles and a stiff neck, Nikki stopped by Queen Street, retrieved her cat and her clothes, and drove everything over to Kate’s apartment.
While Kate had been tucked away on the sofa with a heating pad and a hot mug of tea, Nikki recruited Todd to help her bring down a dresser from the collection of furniture Kate stored on the upper two floors. He had even proved handy enough to put a cat flap in the apartment door that granted Powder the run of the entire building. The cat didn’t lavish undying affection on Kate, but he had shown a little more tolerance toward her over the past week. Once in a while, he even hopped up onto the counter in the bookstore while Kate worked, though he failed to purr when she patted him gingerly.
Kate could accept the arrangement. So could Nikki. Perhaps it wasn’t the “marriage” Nikki had expected, but it was the next step on the path toward permanent commitment. The rest, Kate suspected, would happen in its own time and place, just as everything else had in their relationship.
“Our tastes in décor aren’t entirely compatible,” she said with a smile at Nikki. “But I’m sure we’ll figure out which pieces need to be stored on the upper floor and which ones will blend.”
“My furniture doesn’t blend easily.” Nikki laughed. “Your old couch is probably going to end up back in the barn, Mom.”
“It’s been through every one of my children’s apartments,” Adele said placidly. “I expect it’s served its time. Set it free, Nikki.”
“I guess that means we can throw it out,” Nikki translated for Kate.
Kate smiled and didn’t say anything. She just enjoyed watching her lover laugh and talk with her parents, displaying an ease and happiness that had been missing for so long. There were still wounds to be mended in Nikki’s family, but this was a promising start.
She caught Irene’s eye, and her grandmother raised her glass in a silent toast. Kate smiled and returned her tribute, now very glad that she had returned from Florida early this year so that they could share this adventure.
And as she held up her glass, Kate could feel the tie binding her heart to Nikki’s so strongly that she knew nothing would ever sunder it.
About the Author
Gina L. Dartt was born and raised in Nova Scotia. She’s been a lot of places in Canada and the States, including California, Texas, Georgia and New Jersey, but still considers the Maritimes the best place in the world to live. She likes playing tennis, hiking, reading, spending time with friends and following NFL football. Her favorite authors are currently Elizabeth Peters, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, and Nevada Barr. She lives in Truro, with a massive amount of books and two cats, and works in the offi ce of a hardware store that has existed in the town since 1886. From the original wooden
counter on the main fl oor, where a customer can still buy a single nail if they’d like, to the beams on the top fl oor that are still blackened and seared from a fi re that occurred nearly sixty years earlier, she is surrounded by the history of her home town, which she appreciates and cherishes. Her upcoming works include Unexpected Ties, the next book featuring Kate Shannon and Nikki Harris (Fall 2006).
