Wade took a few pictures of the table and paper.
Tony, his hands covered with gloves, slid the paper from the table into an evidence envelope and jotted a note on the outside.
“The wire?” Tony stared into the doctor's face. “Is it the same kind?”
“You'll need a wire expert, but I'd say unofficially ‘yes,’ and I'd say the wrapping technique is the same as Scarlet's or very similar. I'll let you know after the autopsy if the paper was put there before or after she died.” Doc Nash's frown deepened. “But why?”
With a shake of his head, Tony moved his gaze from Elf. He studied the interior of the motor home. A wall of glass cabinets with a mirrored lining flanked the doorway into the next living space. Dulcimers of many sizes and shapes were on display in the cabinet. Most were traditional hourglass shapes, some crudely formed and some with delicate inlays of mother of pearl or multiple colors of wood. One exquisite teardrop-shaped dulcimer had “ELF” inlayed under a heart-shaped sound hole.
“Do you suppose the killer brought the string or used one of hers?” Tony talked to himself. Scarlet didn't have any musical instruments.”
The doctor frowned, staring around the space. “Not much seems knocked around. Don't you think she'd kick over a crystal lamp or something?”
Tony thought the same thing. “Unless she died instantly, or maybe she did thrash about and our killer took the time to put everything back.”
“I'll dust every surface including the keyboard.” Wade gazed around, probably seeing it for the first time without a camera lens. “It wasn't robbery because her purse is right there.”
Tony agreed. Without touching it, he could see a stack of money inside.
A horn blaring in the parking lot drew their attention. The TBI's crime scene van had arrived. Reinforcements.
Theo was enjoying Saturday morning home with the boys. They were busy mixing the family recipe for pumpkin cookies. She sat in her wheelchair watching a blob of dough stuck to the ceiling and wondered if it would fall. Even with the energetic stirring, she thought it was in a remarkable location. Tony was the only one who'd be able to reach it.
As if her thoughts conjured him, her cell phone chimed. Tony barely let her answer before he rattled off his request that she and the boys go to the shop, told her Elf was dead, and informed her Katti was on the way to pick them up. Then he disconnected.
Theo put the uncooked dough in the refrigerator. She guessed he wanted her to keep track of the conversations at “gossip central,” as Tony liked to refer to her shop. She preferred the term “local news,” but whatever called gossip or news, it flowed through the quilting room like water through a sieve.
At the shop, the boys vanished upstairs into her office, where a corner belonged to them. Theo and Katti barely made it into the classroom before a deluge of quilters, seeking information about Elf, struck like a tsunami. She wondered how they heard the news before she did.
Summer Flowers stalked into Theo's classroom, sending the quilters hurrying back into the fabric end of the store. Summer and Autumn Flowers were brothers. They didn't act like brothers. Theo had known them all her life and their differences still came as a surprise. The two men didn't look like brothers. Blossom's father, Autumn, was round of face and body like his daughter and loved to tell corny jokes; Summer, known as Sum, was lean and hard and wore a perpetual expression of gloom and doom on his gaunt face.
Sum Flowers was not a nice man. Theo watched him carefully. He stood in her makeshift workroom clasping and unclasping his skeletal fingers and staring at his feet. His heavy boots were shedding dry mud on her clean floor.
Theo felt warmed and relieved when Katti came to stand beside her and, although she said nothing, it was clear Katti wasn't pleased to see him either. Theo couldn't imagine what brought him into her shop. She waited for him to speak.
“She wasn't a good girl.” His raspy voice finally broke the silence. His eyes lifted from the floor to give Theo a malevolent stare. “Got what was coming to her.”
Theo felt a ripple of fear. She would not want to be alone with the man. Was he talking about Scarlet or Elf? Theo didn't know what she was supposed to say to the man who'd lost both his daughters. What happened to not speaking ill of the dead? She considered asking him to leave.
The man's first wife, the girls' mother, had been an alcoholic who drank herself to death, leaving her daughters to run wild. His second wife didn't last more than two years with him before she packed a couple of bags and left town with a package delivery man.
“Mr. Flowers?” Theo rolled her chair a bit closer in spite of her distaste for the man. He hadn't been at Scarlet's funeral. “Why did you come here today? Do you need something?”
“Her and her sister both.” He seemed to study the room, ignoring her. “Trash, giving birth to more trash.”
“Sir?” Theo saw Katti reach for the broom.
“You tell your husband he don't need to strain nothing looking for who rid the world of them girls.” He spat on her floor.
“Out.” Enraged, Theo pointed to the door. “Get out.”
Katti waved the broom and yelled something in Russian.
Sum left.
Stunned, Theo and Katti stared at each other for a moment. Finally, Katti broke the silence. “He come back, Katti fix him. Not good man.” She pantomimed slitting her throat.
Theo nodded. The way Sum made her feel, she'd probably help. Even from a wheelchair, she could mop up blood.
Tony and Wade attended the autopsy of Easter Lily Flowers. Doc Nash went along with them, more from professional curiosity than necessity. The medical examiner in Knoxville, with the unfortunate name of Gould, had done work for Park County before and welcomed the threesome like he was inviting them into his home for a card game.
“Come in and make yourself to home.” He shook hands with everyone before pointing out where he wanted them to stand. He even supplied a bucket for Wade before turning to business. “There's probably already several Internet nuts claiming either responsibility or blaming the extraterrestrials. What say we find out the truth?”
Tony barely nodded before the man launched into his monologue again. The doctor talked non-stop for the rest of the time they were there.
The most important thing they learned was the paper in Elf's throat was a song. She had drawn some music notes and written a fair amount of lyrics on the paper she used when composing. The paper had been folded several times and the creases crimped tightly. The tightly folded paper had been shoved deep into Elf's throat before the wire, a dulcimer string, was wrapped around her throat. She did not die instantly but would have struggled for a while. She suffocated.
Not a good way to die, in Tony's opinion. It was similar to Scarlet's death, but slower.
The sweatshirt and jeans she'd worn were carefully bagged and labeled. “I'm sending these to forensics for you.” Dr. Gould looked cheerful. “There's oil and grime of some nature on the back of the sweatshirt.”
Wade copied the lyrics from the paper before it was whisked into another bag headed for the lab.
Tony, Wade and Doc Nash stared at each other and waited for Dr. Gould to announce his opinion.
“Cause of death is clearly suffocation.” Dr. Gould began signing his forms. “Manner of death is homicide. And I'd say by the same person as killed her sister.” He chuckled. “Of course, that last bit is just my personal opinion.”
Tony wanted to talk with Elf's driver. With Wade by his side, he found the man sitting at a table by the window in Ruby's Café. He stared at the motor home. A half-eaten sandwich was on a plate near, but not in front of, him. It looked like he'd lost his appetite and pushed it away.
Ruby whispered that he'd been in the café all day, in the same pose.
Tony and Wade slid onto the chairs facing the man.
Before either of them could ask a question, the driver looked up, his eyes red, but dry. “What happened to her?” A shudder worked through his whole body.
“No.” His eyes flickered away from the motor home and back.
“Because?”
“She wanted to be the center of attention.” He frowned and played with his fork. “As much as I liked her, most of the time, she had these spells of pure crazy. I learned fast not to argue with her then. It was like she became a whole different person.”
“Could you start with your full name?” Wade put his notebook on the table.
“Pericles Antonopoulos.” He spelled it for Wade. “It's Greek.”
Tony managed not to blurt out “No kidding” and concentrated on his questions. “Were you in the church for the wedding?”
“Yes. I sat in the back.”
“How did the two of you get out to the museum for the reception? I didn't see you in the shuttle bus line.” Tony glanced at the motor home parked behind miles of yellow tape. “You don't tow a car.”
“No. We rented a car from the guys at the garage.” Pericles sagged in his chair. “It ran. It was clean. And Elf chewed my ear from one end of this hick town to the other about it. She wanted a limo.”
“Doesn't she have a fleet of cars out at the mansion?” Wade waved his pen in the air. “Including a limo?”
“It was weird.” Pericles straightened. “The whole trip was weird. She didn't want to go out there, and usually she can't wait to get into the house and play with the ATVs and drive one of her little sports cars.” He rubbed his forehead. “I thought maybe Scarlet's death scrambled her brains, but the truth is, she was acting weird before.”
“Did you know Scarlet?”
“Oh, yeah. She visited Elf a lot. They was really good friends but acted otherwise when they got within fifty miles of this place.” He shook his head. “I have no idea why or what was going on.”
“How long have you been with her?” Wade said.
“About three years now.” Pericles poked at his sandwich. “Before me was a guy named Gavin.”
Tony decided it was time to get back on track. “So, you drove her back to the motor home from the museum. And then?”
“She said she had to work on a song and I should sleep in my bunk. I have a private space between her living area and the front seats.”
“Was that unusual?” Wade looked up from his notepad.
“No. In fact, it was the most normal thing about this trip. I stretched out on my bunk and watched movies on my DVD player.”
“Did you hear anything? See anything?”
“Nothing but the sound of the movie coming through the headset. I fell asleep with it on.” An expression of horror tightened his face. “I slept through her murder.”
Tony sat in silence thinking about the man's story. He couldn't stop wondering why Elf hadn't wanted to go to her house. As soon as he and Wade were through at the diner, he voted for a drive. He glanced at Pericles. “When did you find her?”
“I cook her breakfast every morning. It's part of my job.” Pericles blew his nose on a napkin. “I let myself in with my key. The door was locked but it's automatic.” He gulped air like a beached fish. “She was . . . was staring at me with those big, dead eyes.”
“Can you think of anything else weird happening recently?”
Pericles stared at the motor home for a long time. “She thought she had an overly interested fan.”
“Like a stalker?” said Wade. “Or an admirer?”
“Stalker, I'd say. She complained about little items missing from the motor home. But it's locked all the time, and I keep my eye on things.” He cleared his throat. “You know really, I think she lost or mislaid things and then blamed it on this mysterious person. This all started when she began working on her life story. It made her nervous.”
“She was writing a memoir.” Tony guessed.
“No, she was telling the story of her life.” Pericles gave Tony the “how dumb can you be” look. “I think she was really dishing the dirt though.”
“How many people knew?”
“I dunno.” Pericles studied his hands. “We didn't talk much about it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Tony was almost in the Blazer when Nellie Pearl accosted him.
For as long as he'd known Nellie Pearl, which was nearly thirty years now, she had been in the habit of dressing without paying any attention to the constraints of fashion. It was not unusual to see her wearing jeans and a shabby flannel shirt, even in church. She always wore steel-toed work boots.
He dimly recalled seeing her in a dress—it might have been at his father's funeral. In his memory, the toes of those worn boots peeked out from under the crooked hem on her baggy, overlong dress.
He stared at the apparition before him.
Nellie Pearl stared back. Her expression belligerent, her arms crossed over the layers of plaid flannel covering her chest. Even from this distance, Tony could identify three different shirts worn together. The buttoning was uneven, some pieces of shirt sticking above the collar of the next, and one side of the tails hanging lower. Her jeans were unbuttoned. It looked like this pair was covering another pair. They were zipped.
He found his gaze riveted to her feet. Exposed by the too-short pants, her customary boots were gone. Feet that looked like weathered wood, gray and rough, were stuffed into bubble gum pink high-heeled sandals. A leather daisy drooped against the largest, longest, thickest and most yellow toenail he'd seen in his life.
A wave of nausea took him by surprise.
He called Sheila, begged her to come deal with Nellie Pearl and climbed into the Blazer. He knew he was running away like a weasel and called himself names.
In the passenger seat, Wade made no comment.
Tony glanced at Wade just before he turned into the driveway of Elf's mansion. “We'd better get someone out here to keep uninvited guests out. Surely we can bill the estate.”
Wade radioed dispatch. “Hey, Rex, the sheriff needs someone to watch Elf's mansion.”
Tony nodded his approval. “Thank goodness it's Rex back on duty now instead of Flavio. There's no one better in an emergency or with the press.”
Wade didn't respond. All his attention was on the view. He was staring straight ahead. “Oh, my.”
A half-second later, Tony realized what Wade saw—or rather what he didn't see. “The house is gone?” He stopped the Blazer in the driveway and climbed out. Sure enough, as he walked forward he saw a massive hole where the mansion had been.
“When's the last time anyone was out here?” Wade frowned.
“What did they do with the rubble?” Tony was flabbergasted. The house had been a huge three story juxtaposition of Victorian gingerbread and traditional farm house. “There's not even a board left.”
“The garage and cars are gone.” Wade removed his sunglasses and blinked in the bright sun. “Elf must have known. That's why she stayed in town.”
Tony felt like his head was bouncing on a spring. “Why not tell Pericles?”
“Why tear down a million-dollar house?”
“And who did it?” Tony could think of several contractors, including Gus, who could do the job. “Were they sworn to silence, or did we just not hear about it?”
As if conjured by Tony's question, Gus's big pickup came up the drive and parked behind the Blazer. He had a huge grin on his face. “Quite a hole, isn't it?”
“You did this?” Tony was shocked by Gus's cavalier attitude. He was angry. Gus's expression went from jovial to wary in a heartbeat.
“Don't tell me she changed her mind and called you in.”
“Who?”
“Elf.” Gus looked to Wade as if searching for answers. “Who else?”
And then Tony realized his brother had no idea Elf was dead. Had they managed to keep her murder from the media? “Yo
u listen to the radio today?”
Gus shook his head. “Book on CD.”
“Elf's dead.”
“No way.” Gus held his hands up.
“Oh, put your hands down. I know you didn't do it.” Tony gestured to the site of the former home. “What's this all about?”
“Elf decided to level the house and give the acreage, with a check, to the newlyweds. She hired me to do the demolition.”
Wade stared down the driveway. “Does Patrick know?”
“About the house or his mother?”
“Mother.”
Tony nodded. “Only by chance, I happened to know where the couple is spending their weekend honeymoon. I called the sheriff over there and asked him to relay the news.”
“Doesn't seem like a good weekend for honeymoons. First Mike and Ruby didn't get one, and now Patrick and Celeste are probably on their way back from theirs.” Wade continued, “At least Grace and I got an entire day together.”
Gus said, “I guess I'll go home. I just came by to make sure we got everything cleaned up.”
Tony looked at Wade. “Let's go talk to the out-of-town relatives before they escape. Call Rex back and cancel the guards. No one's stealing a hole.”
They found the MacLeods and Durands eating a leisurely brunch together at the River View Motel. Four smiling faces looked up when Tony and Wade walked in. “Join us?”
Tony hoped a bit of coffee would snap his brain into high gear. A waitress wearing a cat costume came to take his order and reminded him it was Halloween. The prospects for a good night's sleep vanished. “Better make it strong.”
He told the two couples the news about Elf and then excused himself from the table and called Theo.
“You've reached the insane asylum.” Theo's voice sounded chirpy but not happy.
“Theo, honey.”
“Oh, no. Any time you start a call with ‘Theo, honey,’ it's a disaster. I don't have time for this.”
The sound of myriad women talking in the background made him groan. “I guess your customers heard the news about Elf?”
Barbara Graham - Quilted 03 - Murder by Music Page 21
