She snatched the book from me. “You seem fascinated by the book. Are you expecting?”
“No. Simply curious. For a book about pregnancy, it mentions coconuts an awful lot.”
“This book launched our coconut oil supplements for expectant and new mothers.”
“Did coconut oil supplements help with your postpartum depression?”
“They did. But it took time to find the right combination.” She paused. “I was the guinea pig, you might say.”
“I met your son today. You must be very proud of him.”
She clutched the book to her chest. “I am. Josh has been the perfect son. I’m very lucky.”
“And yet you never had another child.”
“I didn’t want to risk going through postpartum depression again, especially once I had a child to care for.”
I thought it an opportune time to bring up the nanny. “At least you had the nanny to help you in those early months.”
Ainsley flinched. “It’s debatable how much help Mademoiselle Murier was to any of us. The girl was hardly Mary Poppins.”
“I’d heard she was fond of the baby. And took good care of him while you were ill.”
“Joshua has always been lovable. How difficult would it be for her to look after him? But she was also selfish, immature, and calculating. Quite full of herself. She expected to get her way, as long as she pouted prettily enough. Especially at men.” Ainsley frowned. “I know we’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead. And ever since the girl was murdered, everyone refers to her as if she was a martyred saint. But Laeticia Murier was no saint. Not by a long shot.”
I was sure my face reflected my surprise.
Ainsley leaned closer to me. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. I wanted to fire her long before we ever got on that yacht. I had had quite enough of her tantrums. It was starting to upset the baby. She had already upset Ellen. And Ellen was not an emotionally stable teenager. If Ellen hadn’t confessed to pushing her off the boat, I would have thought Laeticia threw herself off. That’s how out of control Laeticia’s behavior had grown that summer.”
“And yet you didn’t fire her.”
“Ingrid and Cameron talked me out of it. They said I wasn’t thinking clearly due to my depressed state. But I was thinking quite clearly. That girl was maddening. She deserved to be fired.” Ainsley gave me a challenging look. “Her death was a blessing in disguise.”
“Convenient, too,” I remarked. “It also seems convenient that you didn’t tell the police you wanted to fire the dead girl.”
Ainsley shrugged. “It didn’t seem relevant. After all, I didn’t kill her.”
“That’s usually something the police like to determine for themselves.”
“And so they did. They decided that a jealous teenager pushed the nanny overboard. I only wish Ellen had fallen into the lake as well. She and that French train wreck landed this family in the middle of an awful scandal. Now all these years later, Ellen is intent on doing it again. Will we never be free of that damned nanny’s death? And the lunatic who killed her!”
“What is going on here?” Dr. Ingrid Sable joined us, her presence heralded by the sandalwood fragrance of what I recognized as the expensive Shalini perfume.
My mouth fell open to see her this close. Taller than both Ainsley and me, Ingrid’s statuesque height was magnified by a massive white bouffant wafting about her face like a cloud. Her impeccable bone structure gave her an air of haughtiness, and I marveled at how a seventy-seven-year-old woman’s skin could remain this unlined. I didn’t see a hint of a wrinkle.
No matter how many supplements she used, only the world’s best plastic surgeon could work such wonders. That, or she bathed in the blood of young virgins.
While all heads turned in the vendor room, no fans dared come close for an autograph or selfie. I didn’t blame them. Outfitted in a black dress that skimmed her knees, a gold silk jacket, and ropes of gold necklaces, with a gigantic turquoise cross as the centerpiece, she seemed like a modern-day Catherine the Great. Or whatever the Swedish equivalent was.
“You are speaking too loudly, Ainsley,” she said. “And about matters better left unspoken.”
Ainsley ducked her head, as if embarrassed to be caught misbehaving. “I’m so sorry, Ingrid. But Ms. Jacob brought up Laeticia Murier’s death and I became upset.”
She placed her hand on Ainsley’s shoulder. “This has been a difficult week for all of us.” Ingrid turned to me. “And Ms. Jacob should not be upsetting you further.”
“I didn’t mean to,” I said. “I asked about the Sable coconut oil supplements, and whether they eased her postpartum depression. Since I knew Laeticia Murier had been her nanny, I simply mentioned her. I assumed the girl had been of help during that period.”
“I tried to explain how terrible that time was for all of us,” Ainsley said in a tearful voice. “But she refused to listen.”
She looked up at the older woman like an adolescent girl seeking her mother’s protection and approval. Odd behavior for a fifty-something socialite. Then again, Joshua Sable told me that his mother tried to imitate Ingrid. So much so that she hoped to compete as an Olympic archer as well. An unlikely achievement for someone in her sixth decade.
Ainsley was quite the actress, I decided. No doubt she’d been playing the obedient daughter-in-law since the wedding day. I wondered what her endgame was. To become the Sable matriarch when Ingrid died? Assuming Ingrid ever died. Those Swedish genes looked pretty powerful.
“I didn’t know Ainsley was so sensitive.” I didn’t conceal my sarcasm.
“Now you do know,” Ingrid told me. She turned to Ainsley. “We’ll be leaving the center in fifteen minutes. Join the others at the side exit. I’ll be along shortly.”
“Yes, Ingrid.” Ainsley’s nod looked less like a gesture of agreement and more like an act of deference.
“Does everyone follow your orders so quickly?” I asked after Ainsley left. “I’d love to know your secret.”
“My secret?” She lifted an already arched eyebrow. “My secret is that I possess years of experience and the wisdom to learn from it. Everyone in my family has endeavored to do the same.” With a sweeping gesture, Ingrid directed my attention to the Sable products and books.
“Quite an output. The Sables have created an empire.”
“And we will defend it when it comes under attack.”
“I hope you don’t think I’m a threat to the Sable empire.”
“You? Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t. Ms. Jacob, you have a quaint little business in a quaint little town. Go back to what you do best: selling berry products. But if you continue to aid and abet that madwoman, the consequences could threaten us both.”
“How?”
“Scandal. If scandals can topple governments, think how easy it would be to topple a mere company. Or a berry shop. Maybe you’ve forgotten how the scandal of the Chaplin murder forced you to give up your successful TV career and run back to your hometown to hide.”
“My years in television were not as pleasant as you imagine. The Chaplin trial was simply the last straw. I came back to Oriole Point to start a new life. A happier one.” I gestured to all those books. “Just the sort of thing I hear you Sables are always preaching.”
She stiffened. “Neither of us needs another scandal. My family suffered through the tragic death of Mademoiselle Murier twenty-eight years ago. We have no wish to deal with it again. Any more than you want to have the Chaplin murder trial unearthed.”
Now that I had gotten accustomed to her striking looks and natural hauteur, I felt comfortable enough to challenge her. “You seem to regard your daughter-in-law as someone who is easily upset. That hasn’t been my impression of her.”
“Your impression is irrelevant.”
“I’ve done some background reading on your family. All of you are strong, self-confident individuals. Ainsley’s only struggle appears to have been postpartum depression.”
&
nbsp; “While pregnant, Ainsley was plagued with morning sickness for almost the entire nine months. Once the baby was born, we hoped everything would return to normal. Only the depression set in. It was a painful time.” Ingrid looked off into the distance.
“It seems to have been a difficult time for the nanny as well.”
Ingrid instantly returned her attention to me. “What are you talking about?”
“Your son Keith came to my house to discuss Ellen Nagy and the murder.”
“What an extraordinary thing for him to do.” Her tone indicated displeasure. “He didn’t say a word to me about it. Keith never talks about Laeticia or Ellen. He must be more upset than I realized if he spoke to you about the murder.”
“Maybe he needs to talk about it. Learning Ellen lives in Oriole Point may have brought up all the bad memories. He was only a teenager when the nanny died. And the girl he asked to marry him was sent off to prison. Think how it must have traumatized him. Trauma needs to be dealt with openly if everyone is to recover.”
“I didn’t realize you offered berries and counseling, Ms. Jacob. Don’t irritate me further by giving advice on matters you know nothing about.”
“But I want to know. Especially since Ellen came to me for help.”
Ingrid’s exquisitely made-up eyes scanned the room. Probably to make certain no one could listen in. The nearest person was Kim several tables away, and she now chatted on her cell.
“How do you think the murder affected my family?” Ingrid asked in a low voice. “A young woman in our employ lost her life due to my son’s jealous fiancée. You’re too young to remember the sordid publicity, the speculation, the horror of being associated with murder.”
“I do know something about that,” I reminded her.
“Även efter att anklagelsen har väckts, sitter ändå misstanken kvar,” she said softly.
“Excuse me.”
“A Swedish proverb. ‘Even after the accusation is refuted, the suspicion still remains.’ The scandal from the murder followed us long after Ellen confessed to her horrible crime. Tabloid reporters loved to speculate about what happened on the yacht that day. They didn’t like the way the story ended. Instead, they preferred to hint that one of my boys had done it. Or poor Ainsley, who was so depressed she could barely speak.”
I was struck by what she didn’t say. At the time of the murder, Ingrid would have been forty-nine, and Cameron fifty-two. Both hale and hearty enough to have pushed someone off a boat. “Did the speculations ever include you or your husband?”
She seemed to consider whether to answer that question. “Of course they did,” she said finally. For the first time, I heard a slight accent in what had been perfect English.
When she didn’t elaborate, I dared to go on. “Reports at the time suggested that you and your husband were not happy about Keith proposing to Ellen.”
“Keith was too young to become engaged. And to a girl he barely knew. We never made any secret of that. Not to the police or the reporters. What no one understood is that we didn’t bother to protest his engagement too much. My youngest son has a short attention span and a wandering eye. As his subsequent entanglements with women have shown.” She revealed the hint of a sneer. “Keith would have grown tired of Ellen soon. There was no necessity for Cameron or me to obstruct the pair. Time would have handled that.”
“It looks like it did. Ellen was sentenced to prison for fifteen years. Why such a short sentence? The murder was famous. Judges like to make an example in such cases.” Indeed, Evangeline Chaplin was currently serving a life sentence.
“Her young age. And we asked the judge for clemency during sentencing.”
That startled me. “You did?”
“Although shocked by the murder, Keith still labored under the illusion that he was in love with Ellen. Because she confessed to the crime, we knew prison was inevitable. Keith begged us to help her. He couldn’t bear the thought of Ellen dying behind bars. My youngest son is sentimental to a fault. But we’ve always indulged him. So we did as he asked.”
Despite what Ingrid believed, it appeared Keith had truly loved his teenaged fiancée.
“That is why Ellen is now free to create havoc for our family once again,” she went on. “Something she seems to be doing daily.”
“Yes. I spoke with your son Patrick earlier. He showed me the note.”
“You seem to be spending more time with my family that I am. But if you saw the note, you realize Ellen is determined to harass us. Even though she knows we were responsible for getting her sentence reduced.” She sighed. “No good deed goes unpunished.”
“Perhaps. But Ellen certainly was.”
“We were all punished. Especially Laeticia Murier, who did nothing to deserve her fate. Lovely girl. Bright, personable, and with an accommodating nature. Perhaps too accommodating.”
“How so?”
Ingrid frowned. “A few months after I hired her as my assistant, I broke both legs while skiing in Zermatt. Because I take pride in my athleticism, the injuries were difficult to accept. I became irritable during my convalescence. Laeticia took the brunt of my bad behavior.”
I suspected Ingrid was controlling at the best of times. Injured and frustrated, she had probably been as irascible as the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.
“I was too out of sorts to focus on the business at that time,” she continued. “This was the same period in which Ainsley became sick in her pregnancy. Ainsley and I spent the last few months of her pregnancy at our villa in St. Lucia. I have a fondness for the Caribbean, as does my daughter-in-law. But Laeticia was quite miserable.”
“Why?”
“She was afraid of the water. When she was a child, some ridiculous fortune-teller in France told her she would die by drowning. And our villa has a private beach. Wherever she looked there was water. I should have sent her to work in our offices in New York or LA.”
“When did you finally leave St. Lucia?”
“A month after Joshua was born. The arrival of the baby put Laeticia in a better mood. Ainsley and Patrick planned to hire a nanny once we returned home. However, it quickly became apparent that Ainsley suffered from postpartum depression. So it was Laeticia who cared for the infant. I regretted losing her as my assistant, but we agreed she would be of more use as Joshua’s nanny. And she was wonderful with the child. Certainly Laeticia preferred catering to a baby rather than me.” She shrugged. “As I said, she was a bright girl.”
I heard an announcement over the loudspeaker regarding the Q&A session with Chad Nixon of Hard Bodies. At least a dozen people in the vendor room headed for the exits.
Ingrid smoothed her jacket. “I’ve answered enough rude inquiries for one day.”
“I have one more question.”
She frowned so severely, a hint of a wrinkle appeared. “Don’t abuse my kind nature.”
There were a lot of ways to describe Ingrid Sable, but the words “kind nature” didn’t factor onto my list. “You say Laeticia enjoyed being a nanny. But Keith mentioned she had grown unhappy that last summer on Mackinac Island.”
Ingrid took a deep breath. “Keith appears to have been quite talkative during his conversation with you. I must speak to him about that.”
“Ainsley claims she wanted to fire the nanny, and you and your husband talked her out of it. If Ainsley wanted her gone, and the nanny was unhappy, why not let her go?”
“I don’t owe you anything, Ms. Jacob. Least of all answers.”
“True. But I’m good friends with Oriole Point’s chief of police. I was there when the body of Felix Bonaventure was found. I’m dating the investigative officer handling his murder for the sheriff’s department. And Ellen Nagy has so far chosen to communicate through me. I’m involved whether I like it or not. That means I have questions I am determined to find answers to. If you don’t wish to answer any of them, fine. But someone will.”
Although Ingrid’s blue eyes flashed with anger, her voice was calm when s
he replied, “Yes, Laeticia was unhappy that summer. Who could blame her? She spent months taking care of me while I recovered. She helped Ainsley during her bouts of morning sickness. All while being anxious about the sea lapping outside our door. She was then entrusted with the care of an infant. It was a great deal of stress to put on someone so young.”
“And then she spent the entire summer on Mackinac Island,” I said. “More months surrounded by water. I’m surprised she stayed as long as she did.”
“As I said, the girl was too accommodating. But she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. She announced several times that summer that she wanted to go back to France. None of us believed her. She often threatened to return home when things became stressful. But she never did.”
“Why did Ainsley want to fire her?”
“My daughter-in-law began to resent the girl. Because of her postpartum depression, the baby spent most of his time with Laeticia. Ainsley felt excluded, and she blamed the nanny. But Ainsley would have changed her mind as soon as we returned home and she had to look for someone to replace her. Nor did I think Laeticia meant to leave whenever she threatened to quit.”
“Why not?”
“The Sables live a most luxurious life. As do the employees who cater to our daily needs. Laeticia would have missed the perks.”
“Maybe she was more unhappy than everyone realized.”
“You think she threw herself off the boat?” Ingrid shook her head. “Impossible. Laeticia was terrified of water. The last thing she would have done is willingly gone into the lake.”
“Ellen was afraid of the water, too.”
“Ellen’s fears were never my concern. Although if she was so afraid of water, why did the foolish girl take a summer job on an island?” she said with contempt.
I thought back to Leticia staring at the lake and how she told me that she did so in order to face her fears. Maybe she’d done that as a teenager, too. Forced herself to live surrounded by water, hoping she would grow less afraid.
“You may not have cared about Ellen’s feelings, but why include the nanny on that yacht trip?” I didn’t bother to hide the disapproval in my voice. “I would never force anyone terrified of drowning to go out on Lake Michigan. And on a boat trip that took hours.”
Mulberry Mischief Page 20
