X Marks the Scot

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

  “Would you like coffee or lemonade?”

  “I’d like a stiff drink, but it better be coffee. I have a feeling I may not be done for the day.”

  “Dig in.” Having refueled her friend, Liss went back to a sink already full of soapsuds. “Talk to me while I do the dishes.”

  Liss was certain that at Sherri’s house, Pete and the kids had already finished their meal. There were few families that dined fashionably late in this part of Maine. Unless shift work interfered with a regular schedule, most people had the food on the table as soon as everyone was home from work for the day. She and Dan often set up TV tables and ate while watching the local news at five-thirty. They were almost always through with supper by the time the national news came on an hour later.

  “Jardine has a nasty bump on his head but otherwise he’s fine. Mad as a wet hornet, but fine.” Sherri paused to eat another few bites of the chicken stir-fry Liss had put together when she got home from work.

  “Did he see who hit him?” Liss asked.

  Dan, temporarily abandoning the Red Sox pregame show he’d turned on in the living room, appeared in the doorway. He, too, listened attentively for Sherri’s answer.

  “He says he didn’t see or hear a thing. He felt a moment’s pain and when he came to, the box was gone. That said, I don’t think there’s any doubt about who stole it. I’ve spent the last five hours digging into Benny Beamer’s past.”

  That caught Liss’s full attention. Leaving the rest of the dishes to finish later, she joined Sherri at the table. Dan stayed where he was, propping up the door frame.

  “Tell.”

  Sherri took another sip of her coffee. “She’s a total fraud, for one thing.”

  “Not a college instructor?” Liss guessed.

  “Oh, she held a couple of adjunct positions, just like she said. Part-time instructors work cheap and apparently their credentials aren’t always checked as thoroughly as they should be. Benny was involved for a while with a guy who makes a legitimate living as an adjunct professor of English. That’s how she figured out how to impersonate someone like him, but it turns out that Benny never even graduated from college. She won an athletic scholarship to cover her tuition, but then she was expelled. No one’s saying why, but it had to be something fairly serious.”

  “Back up,” Liss interrupted. “Athletic scholarship? What sport?”

  “Gymnastics.”

  The cats, hoping for something, preferably chicken, to drop into their mouths, sat on either side of Sherri’s chair, trying to look as if they hadn’t eaten in the last decade. Sherri ignored them.

  “Gymnastics,” Liss repeated. “That explains a lot. Gymnasts are tiny, but they’re strong. The loose clothing Benny always wears fooled me into thinking she was too weak to haul a dead body around.”

  “It’s the next part of her story that really gets interesting.” Sherri ate a few more mouthfuls of the stir-fry before she explained. “Her first job after she was expelled was as a receptionist at Cornwall Pharmaceuticals. She was there for six months . . . at right about the time Lester Widdowson was getting ready to leave the company.”

  “And around the same time he bought the Chadwick house?”

  “Give the girl a medal.” Sherri pushed her plate away, having polished off every morsel.

  “That means it’s likely that Widdowson heard about the place from Benny,” Liss mused.

  Lumpkin put his front paws on Sherri’s thigh and checked to make sure there was nothing left. Sherri glared at him until he got down again. Liss was too lost in her own thoughts to notice.

  College degree or not, Benny knew how to do research, and Liss was willing to bet she’d grown up hearing plenty of stories about the Chadwicks and how they’d made their fortune. It was easy to imagine her talking Lester Widdowson into buying the property. If he’d mentioned that he was looking for a private place to run his own experiments and if Benny already knew about the land once owned by the Maine branch of her family, she might well have believed that there was something to be gained by visiting the mansion in person. Of course she’d have jumped at the chance to put the property into friendly hands. Since she could play the part of “sweet young thing” to a T, it would have been a piece of cake for her to charm an older man like Widdowson. As if to confirm her theory, Liss remembered something else.

  “Dolores told me that Lester Widdowson had a woman with him the day he came to the library. That was right before he bought the place. I wonder if that was Benny?”

  “Didn’t Dolores recognize her when she came back to town? I know Benny used the library at least once in the last few weeks.”

  Liss shook her head. “The woman with Widdowson waited for him outside, by the car. Dolores only saw the top of her head.”

  Sherri’s brow furrowed. “I don’t get it. If she was here with him then, wouldn’t she have searched the mansion and the grounds at the time?”

  “Maybe she did.” Liss’s agile brain scrambled to realign the known facts with logical speculation. “What if she’s known since then that there’s no Chadwick treasure? What if it’s the formula she’s been looking for?”

  Sherri slid her chair away from the table and stood. “At the moment I don’t care what she’s after. I just want to find her. But first I’m going to go home and give my kids a hug before they go to bed.”

  Dan was blocking the way out. “Hold up for just a second. You didn’t tell us what else you found out about Benny. Where did she go after she left her job as a receptionist?”

  “That’s even more suspicious,” Sherri said. “She did a complete disappearing act for nearly a year. Then she turned up under arrest for trying to trick an old woman out of her savings. She was using a different name, which is why her shady past didn’t pop up the first time I did a background check.”

  “If she knew Widdowson stole from the company they both worked for, it makes sense that she wouldn’t hang around. If he’d been arrested, she could have been accused of being his accomplice.”

  “Maybe. Apparently, she took up with a con man and was using his last name, even though they weren’t married.”

  “Was any of what she told us true?” Liss asked.

  “Oh, sure. The house-sitting gigs were real. Funny thing, though. After the owners got home, they noticed there were things missing. Not the obvious objects like jewelry or computers, but items they’d stored in attics or cellars and had no reason to look for right away.” Sherri edged past Dan, working her way along the hall toward the front door.

  Liss trailed after her with another question. “Why come back now? Why would she think Widdowson left something valuable behind?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe he told her what he had planned.” Sherri glanced at her watch. “I’ve really go to go. Amber and Christina will already be in bed.”

  Her hand was on the knob, but before she could turn it, Liss heard the sound of running footsteps. They were followed by a frantic pounding on the outside of the door.

  Aaron Lucas stood on Liss and Dan’s front porch, his fist raised to knock again. He looked surprised to find Sherri there, but his gaze touched only briefly on Moosetookalook’s chief of police before fixing on Liss.

  “We need your help, Ms. Ruskin.”

  “You’d better come in.” Liss stepped back and gestured toward the living room that opened off the hallway.

  “Do you want me to stay?” Sherri’s reluctance was palpable.

  Lucas didn’t look thrilled by the idea, either. His tone was grudging. “I suppose you’ll have to find out about it sooner or later.”

  “Find out about what?” Although Dan glowered at their unexpected visitor, he didn’t try to prevent him from entering the living room. He even went so far as to mute the television, although he did sneak a peek at the score of the Red Sox game that had started while he was in the kitchen.

  Lucas raked his fingers through his dark hair. He didn’t sit, and he couldn’t quite meet Liss�
�s eyes. “Kelsey received a phone call about an hour ago. A woman offered to sell him the formula Widdowson hid in that metal box.”

  “How do you—?”

  Lucas almost cracked a smile at Sherri’s expression of disbelief. “How do I know the box was stolen? It didn’t take long for that story to spread.”

  “This woman,” Liss said. “Did you recognize her voice?”

  “I pinned it down when she called a second time to arrange the exchange.”

  “Benny Beamer?” Sherri asked.

  He nodded. “Benny Beamer.”

  “Did you know she worked for Cornwall Pharmaceuticals at the same time Lester Widdowson did?”

  When Lucas looked even more grim and didn’t answer, Liss guessed he had not.

  “She wants money in exchange for the formula,” he said after a moment, “and before you ask, Kelsey brought a large amount of cash with him. He anticipated having to pay bribes. We’re covered there.”

  “So what’s the problem?” Sherri sneaked another peek at her watch.

  “And why,” Dan asked, taking a threatening step toward the other man, “did you come here?”

  “I think you’ve already guessed,” Lucas said, taking a prudent step away from Liss’s husband. “The Beamer woman set conditions. She wants Ms. Ruskin to act as courier.”

  * * *

  Just after dark, despite vehement objections from her husband, Liss drove away from the house with the bag of cash Kelsey had provided sitting on the seat beside her. She was nervous, but not scared. In spite of her suspicion that Benny had killed Orson Bailey, she could think of no reason for the other woman to harm her. Benny would take the money and run.

  The drop site was in a remote area of town, accessible only by a poorly maintained dirt road. Liss had slowed to a crawl the moment she turned onto it. She had almost reached the spot where she’d been told to leave the bag, a location Sherri and her officers would have staked out by now, ready to arrest Benny the moment she showed up, when the cell phone in Liss’s jeans pocket began to vibrate. She tried to ignore it, but it stopped and started again. She was tempted to haul it out and shut it off without even looking at the screen, but the faint possibility that her parents were finally returning one of her calls changed her mind. Since the end of someone’s driveway conveniently appeared off to her right, she pulled in next to the mailbox and answered.

  “Such a Goodie Two-shoes,” Benny Beamer said. “I knew you’d be one of those people who have to keep both hands on the wheel.”

  Liss was too startled to say anything. She peered into the darkness around her. Was Benny out there, or was this just a ruse to keep the courier off balance? Either way, getting this phone call was not good. Clearly, the other woman had no intention of showing up at the location she’d given Aaron Lucas.

  “Drive a little farther,” the voice in Liss’s ear instructed. “Around the curve so your car can’t be seen from the road. Then get out and walk into the woods on your left. Don’t forget to bring the money.”

  Resigned to doing as she was told, Liss followed orders. She shivered a little as she turned off the engine and the headlights. It would be hard for Sherri to spot the car and she couldn’t track Liss’s phone with GPS because Moosetookalook didn’t run to fancy, expensive tracking equipment. It didn’t matter, Liss told herself. Benny was a city girl. She wasn’t likely to be too far away. Besides, she had no reason to do anything worse to the person doing her bidding than tie her up and leave her in the woods.

  Somehow, that thought was not as reassuring as it should have been.

  “I need three hands,” she muttered, trying to figure out how to hold a flashlight in one, keep the phone pressed to her ear with the other, and still carry the bag containing the payoff. Her solution was to open the trunk and haul out one of the totes she used for groceries. Since it had long straps and could be slung cross-body, she appropriated it to carry the payoff.

  “What’s the holdup?” Benny demanded.

  “On my way,” Liss said. “How far?”

  “I’ll tell you when to stop.” She sounded testy.

  When Liss heard rustling in the woods and saw a faint beam of light off to her left, she assumed it was Benny shadowing her. She kept walking, but beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. She didn’t like the sensation of being stalked.

  Liss had never been any good at judging distance and there was no path to speak of, so when Benny finally barked out an order to stand still, she had no idea whether she was a hundred yards or a quarter of a mile from where she’d left the car.

  “Hands over your head,” Benny ordered. “Don’t turn around.”

  Liss complied and braced herself in case she was about to be bashed over the head. Instead, Benny came up behind her and relieved her of her cell phone. Uncertain whether the other woman was armed, Liss didn’t move a muscle. From the sound of it, Benny was disabling Liss’s only link to the outside world.

  “Are you wired?” she asked.

  “You’ve been watching too many cop shows.” Sophisticated listening devices were another thing the Moosetookalook Police Department couldn’t afford.

  She jumped when Benny touched her again, this time to take away her flashlight. Liss didn’t risk looking behind her, but if the twin beams were anything to go by, Benny had placed it on the ground next to her own light. Next she patted Liss down using both hands. Did that mean she didn’t have a weapon? Should she try to overpower her? The memory of Benny lifting that heavy well cover without breaking a sweat dissuaded her. Hand-to-hand combat was a very bad idea.

  “So, what’s the plan?” she asked, pleased to hear that her voice didn’t betray how nervous she was. “Do you intend to return the box?”

  Benny laughed. “Sure, but it won’t have anything in it. Now, moving very slowly, place the tote on the ground.”

  Liss did as she was told.

  “Put your hands behind you.”

  “So,” Liss said as she felt a cord wrap around her wrists. “You’re going to keep both the formula and the money and leave me behind, tied up.” That was pretty much what she’d expected, but she still felt uneasy. “You realize I might not be found for days. I could die of exposure.”

  “Not likely.”

  Liss wasn’t so sure about that. The temperatures had been in the eighties all week. Thirst and heat prostration would be serious problems if she was left exposed to the elements for too long. She refused to think about the possibility of wild animals finding her while she was helpless to defend herself. Bears weren’t unheard of in the area.

  “You could tie me loosely. You’d still be long gone before I worked myself free.”

  A derisive snort answered this ploy, along with a shove that had Liss sitting down, rather abruptly, on a large fallen log. When Benny knelt in front of her to bind her ankles, Liss thought about kicking her in the head, but before she could put that plan into action, she was distracted by the unexpected discovery that she did have wiggle room in the cord around her wrists.

  Whatever Benny’s other talents, she wasn’t any good at tying knots. Liss felt the cord loosen enough that she could slip first one hand and then the other free. Elated, she struggled to keep her expression neutral and her hands out of sight while she considered what to do.

  Finishing her task, Benny rose and picked up both flashlights and the tote.

  Liss sat very still. If the cord around her ankles was as poorly secured as her hands had been, it would fall right off the moment she stood up. Why on earth hadn’t Benny used duct tape? Not that she was complaining. She’d bide her time, then escape. There was no sense in giving Benny a chance to do something more permanent.

  But she was curious. As Benny started to turn away, Liss blurted, “Will you answer a couple of questions before you go?”

  “Why should I?”

  “If I’m going to have to spend several uncomfortable hours, if not days, alone in the woods, the least you can do is leave me with something to thin
k about. Don’t you want to impress me with how clever you are?”

  In fiction, Liss had heard this last-minute confession called “the ritual spilling of the beans.” There were times when this made for pretty unbelievable reading, especially when the villain stopped on the brink of killing the hero to tie up all the loose ends in the story. She wasn’t really expecting Benny to oblige her. It was hardly in the other woman’s best interests to linger.

  Benny, however, was confident that she’d outsmarted the opposition and just conceited enough to think that she had plenty of time to make her getaway. She turned back on the brink of leaving to ask a question of her own: “How much do you know?”

  “Sherri found out that you worked for Cornwell Pharmaceuticals at the same time Lester Widdowson did, and Dolores Mayfield, the librarian, knew that Lester had a woman with him when he visited Moosetookalook.”

  “Not bad.”

  “I think you knew about the stolen formulas back then, and that you had a pretty good idea of how much one of them might be worth to a rival company.”

  “Of course I did. Why do you think I befriended the old geezer? He was stupid about it, though. The company found out what he’d done and came after him.”

  “So you split. Smart.”

  She shrugged. “Even smarter, I kept track of him. I knew about it when he died. When I saw the notice for the auction, I figured it would be worth my while to pay another visit to this backwater.”

  “You suspected Widdowson was paranoid enough to have hidden at least one of the formulas somewhere in the house?”

  “I thought there was a good chance of it.” She leaned toward Liss, her corkscrew curls grotesque in the eerie light provided by the flashlights. “But here’s something you can’t know, Miss Amateur Detective. I broke into the Chadwick house before the auction and checked all the hiding places I discovered when Widdowson bought the place.”

  “You didn’t know about the one in the brick wall. And there was nothing in the hidey-holes in the house, was there? Too bad you didn’t think to check inside that trunk while you were at it. You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble.”