Add a Pinch of Murder

by Joanne Pence

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “Miss Vera killed Kevin Blithe?” Rico said. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Believe it,” Angie said. “I’d like to see her old room, see if she left anything in there that might be evidence of her actions.”

  They headed up to the second floor and the guest bedroom that Vera had used whenever she stayed overnight at the mansion. Angie opened drawers and the closet while Rico stood watching, but Vera had cleaned out the room. “There’s got to be something in this house, even if not in this room. All I need is some object, it doesn’t matter what, as long as it’s enough to let Paavo get a search warrant to go through Vera’s apartment. Then, for sure, he’ll be able to prove what she’s done.”

  “Aren’t you both the sweetest things?” Madrigal said. “Trying to find proof of Vera’s guilt.”

  Angie and Rico spun around at the sound of Madrigal’s voice.

  “How did you—” Angie began and then realized Madrigal must have come in the way Oliver’s killers had—from the porch to the secret passage. She started to get a very bad feeling.

  “That’s right,” Rico said. “Miss Angie and me—we’re looking for proof, that’s all. Everything will be all right.”

  “Rico, don’t try it!” Madrigal had stood with one arm behind her back and now she swung it forward to reveal a gun in her hand. She pointed it at them. “Put the gun down, Rico!”

  He did as told while Angie looked from him to Madrigal in shock.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Angie,” Rico said. “I should have realized sooner that she’s the real killer.”

  “You?” Angie asked, staring at Madrigal’s gun yet hardly able to believe that the woman was capable of killing anyone.

  Madrigal glared at Angie and shook her head in disgust. “You think you’re such a nice person, always being there to take care of poor, unhappy Madrigal. Well, let me tell you the only reason I was ever unhappy was because everyone thought they knew what I wanted better than I did.”

  “What do you mean?” Angie cried. “I never—”

  “Take my father, for one. He made Kevin’s life a living hell, and mine!” Madrigal cried. “Then, once Farlee got Oliver to marry her, she decided my father was too old, fat, and uninteresting for her and she turned her attention on Kevin. When he didn’t take her up on her advances, she started lying to my father about him, saying he was the one coming on to her. I calmed my father down, but …”

  “You killed her?” Angie asked.

  “Of course not!” Madrigal said. “All I did was decide to get rid of her. Someone else actually did the deed.”

  “Harlan Yarborough?” Angie said.

  “Hmm, you’ve found out a lot, haven’t you? A regular Miss Marple,” Madrigal said.

  “But how did you, and Harlan, arrange Farlee’s death? She was involved in so much that happened.”

  “Yes. That was the beauty of it. You see, Harlan was willing to do anything for money. He once had a lot of it, but between his life style, and drugs, he blew through it fast. I offered him enough to make my suggestions well worth his while. He was even willing to prostitute himself.”

  “What?”

  “Isn’t that what you call providing sex for money? He did. He managed to convince Farlee that he was in love with her. He came up with an elaborate scheme which required her to talk Oliver into taking her yachting. Once they reached Santa Barbara, after she snuck off my father’s yacht and onto some fishing boat, she thought Harlan would get onto the yacht and kill Oliver. The authorities would think that she was kidnapped and Oliver killed trying to save her. She’d go to the authorities in Ensenada and tell them she managed to escape her kidnappers, but that she was so traumatized, she didn’t remember anything. The Mexicans would very likely send her back home, where she’d inherit all of Oliver’s money. Of course, it didn’t happen that way.”

  “So how did she die?”

  “Harlan met her in Ensenada and convinced her to sail with him down to Los Cabos. He said that would make it more credible that she’d been kidnapped. Then, when they were out on the ocean, he threw her overboard in a very remote part of the Baja peninsula. He honestly didn’t think she’d ever turn up. But, surprisingly, she did.”

  Angie looked at Madrigal as if she were crazy. “But why kill Oliver?”

  “It was a shame, really. Without Farlee, I expected he’d go back to being the father I once adored. But he didn’t. He kept nagging Kevin to find a job and keep away from his debauched friends. Kevin hated Oliver, and things got even worse between them after Farlee’s death. Finally, Kevin told me he couldn’t take it anymore. He was going to leave me. He said my money wasn’t enough to keep him here. I couldn’t bear to lose him. When it came down to my father or my husband. I chose Kevin.”

  “And you killed Oliver?”

  “He was getting older and fatter everyday. I expected he’d die soon anyway, and this way, he didn’t suffer,” Madrigal said. “In a sense, I did him a favor.”

  “You used the secret passage into the house,” Angie said. “That was how you snuck past Joey and Rico. You snuck into your father’s bedroom and put cyanide in his water glass, knowing he’d drink it with his nightly pills. Your own father!”

  “So I did,” Madrigal said with no emotion whatsoever.

  Angie was chilled to the bone. “You would have gotten away with both murders, if it weren’t for a mortician who was skeptical about your father’s death.”

  Madrigal shrugged. “These things happen.”

  “You must have brought Harlan back into the picture at that point. You needed to frame a jewel thief for your father’s death, and then kill the thief to tie up loose ends.”

  “It ended up all quite neat and tidy. Harlan knew people who did such things with no qualms. It was actually all quite fascinating,” Madrigal said.

  “All would have been fine, but then Kevin was also poisoned,” Angie said.

  Tears filled Madrigal’s eyes. “Yes. That hurt.”

  “What happened?”

  “It was all Harlan’s fault,” Madrigal whispered. “He wanted more and more money from me until I said no. Then he went to Kevin and told him everything, demanding Kevin pay him for his silence.”

  “Did he?”

  “Kevin confronted me. He called me crazy. I tried to convince him I’d take care of everything, that I’d take care of Harlan the same way I did Oliver, but he said he was through, that he hated me, Cambry money, everything about the way he was living. He said he was going away to start over. As if I’d let him walk out on me. But I knew he’d stay for the SoMa event. He was the one who put it all together. That was his job, the ‘events planner’ for my father’s charities. I was sorry to have to use Harlan again, but I did.”

  “He’ll only try to blackmail you once more,” Angie said. “Let me help you. We’ll call Paavo, explain it all to him. You were a victim.”

  Madrigal shook her head. “Harlan won’t be doing anything to me anymore. Not to anyone. Now, it’s time for you two to go into the secret room.”

  “What secret room?” Angie asked.

  “Don’t be cute.”

  She directed them to the plain “servant’s quarters” bedroom. The back of the closet sprang open when Madrigal pushed a certain spot on the wall. She handed Angie some duct tape. “Bind Rico’s arms together in back.”

  Angie did so. “I’m so sorry, Rico,” she whispered.

  “Not your fault, Miss Angie. I should of seen it.”

  “Again!” Madrigal demanded, and Angie went around a couple more times with the tape. “Do the same with his ankles.”

  Angie complied. Madrigal made her stretch her own arms out behind her back and then proceeded to bind them with duct tape, along with Angie’s ankles. “You could have saved yourself all kinds of trouble if you had paid attention to the note I sent you to keep away! You should know that I did stop Ted Redmund from killing you. He thought I’d pay him since he was a hired assassin, but I did
n’t really want you dead, just scared. Harlan got rid of Redmund since we couldn’t trust him, and then Harlan put the dead goldfish outside your apartment as a clearer warning than the note was. Dead in the water should have reminded you of Farlee’s murder. But still, you wouldn’t stop asking questions.”

  “But—” Angie hardly got the word out when Madrigal put tape over her mouth and then Rico’s.

  Angie’s phone started to ring. Madrigal reached into her pocket and pulled it out. “Ah, your boyfriend. Well, too bad.” She it turned off the phone and put it back into her own pocket. “By the way, no one will hear you up here. My father had very thick walls put around this room. It’s an old, rudimentary version of a safe space. All his life he was paranoid. Turns out, he was right to be. Somebody was out to get him: his own daughter.” She then locked the door that led to the corridor to the back porch.

  “I’ll have to say good-bye. Don’t worry, I won’t let you two slowly starve to death or die of dehydration up here,” she said. “I’m going to start a fire. I’ll be glad to see the last of this house, this terrible house, where I suffered so much unhappiness.”

  With that, she stepped into the closet to the servant’s bedroom, and locked the door behind her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “Connie, do you have any idea where Angie is?” Paavo asked when Connie answered her cell phone. “I can’t seem to reach her.”

  “She’s in the Cambry mansion looking for evidence that Vera killed Oliver and Kevin.”

  “It wasn’t Vera,” Paavo said. “It was Madrigal. I need to warn Angie.”

  “Madrigal? My God,” Connie said. “But don’t worry. I’m outside the Cambry’s place watching to make sure Vera doesn’t go into the house while Angie’s in it. She told me to call if she shows up. And so far, I haven’t seen Madrigal either.”

  “But that doesn’t make sense. If Angie told you to call with a warning, she should be answering her phone,” Paavo said. “I’ve called her several times.”

  “Maybe she’s in the basement and … wait! Madrigal just walked out of the Cambry house,” Connie said on the phone to Paavo. “But I never saw her enter. I wonder if she was in there the whole time! And if she’s the killer …”

  “What’s Madrigal doing?” Paavo asked.

  “She’s getting in her car.”

  “Are you in yours?”

  “Yes.”

  “Keep an eye on her, but do not get close to her, and for heaven’s sake don’t let her see you. She’s dangerous,” Paavo said. “I’ll be right there.”

  As he hurried to his car, he tried Angie’s number again, then Rico’s, and after receiving no answer, he called Joey and told him what was going on. “You have a key to the house, right?” Paavo asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes. If you get there first, don’t go in.”

  “Got it.”

  o0o

  Paavo and Joey entered the house. It looked empty, with no signs of a struggle. “Where could they be?” Paavo said.

  “Rico had a job to do,” Joey told him. “No way he’d have left this house without telling me.”

  “And Connie watched Angie enter, but not leave,” Paavo said. He pulled out his phone and went to email. “Earlier today Angie sent me pictures of a secret room she said was in this house, but she didn’t say how to find it.” He opened the photos and gave the phone to Joey. “Does any of that look familiar?”

  Joey shook his head. “Rico didn’t tell me nothing about it.”

  The two went down to the basement, and up to the attic, and searched everywhere in between.

  Paavo called Connie again. “You’re absolutely sure they were in the house?” he asked.

  “Yes. I saw Rico answer the door and let Angie in. They didn’t leave.”

  “Angie sent me photos of a secret room in the house, did she tell you anything about it?”

  “A secret …” Connie drew in her breath. “Yes, she mentioned it, but then we started talking about other things. She never said where it was.”

  “So,” Paavo said, “Madrigal could have entered the house while they were here. But where are they now? Are you still following Madrigal?”

  “Yes. She’s at a Shell station on Van Ness and Jackson filling her car.”

  “Okay. Give me her license number and make of the car. I’ll have the police pick her up. Stick with her.”

  “Okay.” She then gave him the number of the black BMW.

  Paavo made a phone call, then he and Joey continued their search.

  o0o

  A short while later, Connie phoned back. “Paavo! Madrigal didn’t only fill her car. She bought a gas canister at the station and filled it with gasoline. She’s now heading back toward the Cambry house.”

  “Any sign of the police?” Paavo asked.

  “Not yet.”

  Paavo called Yosh and told him what was going on.

  Within the minute Yosh sent a text: SFPD heading to house now.

  Connie phoned. “She’s turning onto the street already. She hit every green light, and those that weren’t she ran the red. I had to as well, and now she knows she’s being followed. Paavo, I’m scared.”

  “Me, too.” He texted Yosh. She’s here.

  Madrigal approached the house, but instead of coming to the door, she ran over to the bushes and ivy climbing the walls of the house and began pouring gasoline on them. Joey ran out the door to stop her, but she dropped the jug upside down so the gas poured out onto the ground beneath the bushes—and beneath her feet.

  She fired a gun at him, sending him diving back into the house. Now they knew she not only had gasoline, but was armed—and knew how to use the weapon.

  Paavo took out his police issue SIG Sauer but before he could get around Joey, she smashed the front window with the butt of her gun. Almost immediately, the bottoms of billowy, lacy curtains blew out of the window and flapped in the breeze.

  “Drop the gun!” Paavo shouted.

  She spun toward him, a cigarette lighter in her hand. She flicked it and the flame rose high.

  Paavo didn’t dare shoot. The lighter would fall onto the gasoline. If the curtains caught fire, bringing it indoors, the whole house was a panoply of heavy drapes, cloth covered tables, and fabric chairs. It could go up quickly.

  “Where are Angie and Rico?” he demanded.

  “You’ll never find them in time,” she said.

  Just then, sirens wailing, the police roared onto the block and Connie pointed them toward Madrigal.

  She threw down the lighter as Paavo shouted “No!”

  Flames shot up all around her.

  The police grabbed her and pulled her from the fire, pushed her to the ground and used their hands and jackets to smother her burning clothing. Several police tried to stamp out the fire traveling up the vines and bushes. But the vegetation was dry and thick, and they’d spent too much time trying to put out the flames on Madrigal’s clothes. The fire raced up the ivy to the lacy curtains, and from them flames entered the house.

  As soon as Paavo saw the police grab Madrigal, he ran indoors, desperate to stop the fire’s spread. With Joey, he tried to rip down the drapes around the curtains, but they were held fast. Even the rod that held them was strong. The fire caught the drapery and soon it, too, was raging.

  Fire sirens were heard approaching.

  Connie ran into the house. “Are you all right? I called the fire department as soon as I realized what she intended to do with the gasoline,” she said. “Where’s Angie?”

  “We don’t know,” Paavo said.

  Connie paled. “But she’s—”

  “Get out of here, Connie.” Paavo tone was bleak. “It’s already getting smoky.”

  “No. Angie said something about a secret passage. I’m going to help you find her.”

  Paavo looked around, then faced Joey.

  “If there is a secret passage, that could explain how someone got into the house when y
ou and Rico were here without you knowing it. Where were you stationed that night?”

  Just then, the firemen came in and ordered them out of the house. Paavo showed his badge and ignored the order, despite the smoke now pouring out of the living room and into the foyer.

  “I was in the parlor,” Joey said. “Nobody got past me. I was awake the whole night. I never sleep on the job. There’s a security system in the house and it wasn’t triggered. I didn’t hear anyone on the stairs which squeak loud.”

  Paavo thought about all that. “Madrigal would know the system, so that doesn’t mean anything, but that she got in does, and that she made it to the second floor without using the stairs. There’s got to be another way up there, and she had to have come in from the back or the side of the house. That’s got to be where the secret opening is.”

  They ran out to the porch and into the yard, grateful for fresh air. “The porch has storage spaces along an entire wall,” Joey said. “What if …”

  He didn’t have to say anything more as Paavo began to open each storage door and pull out the supplies and furniture, trying to find some sort of opening in the back. Joey and Connie joined him. They couldn’t find anything.

  The sound of more fire truck sirens was welcome, but Paavo didn’t want to think about what was happening to the front of the house … or where Angie might be. If she was trapped anywhere near the living room, he didn’t know if she could survive the smoke.

  And then he opened a narrow door—one he expected would have nothing more than rakes or shovels, and discovered a lone garden hoe inside. He pushed against the back wall and it sprang open.

  “Angie,” he yelled as he ran down the passage and then up the ladder to the small room.

  He and Joey were able to muscle open the locked door at the top of the ladder.

  Once inside the small, dark space, he noticed that the smoke hadn’t reached it yet due to the number of shut doors, and that two people were in the room.

  He only had eyes for one—and could have cried with relief when her large brown eyes met his.