A Bite of Blueberry

by Melissa Monroe

  “Yes!” Anna hissed. It still sounded tinny to Priscilla’s ears. “Jamie owes me ten bucks! Woo!”

  “Serves him right,” Arthur muttered. “No one knows these teams better than Anna. She was on almost all of them at some point during high school.”

  ‘Which is why you brought her along, I presume?”

  “That, and we stand out less if we look like a family.”

  There was that need to squirm again. Fortunately, Arthur didn’t seem too uncomfortable. Perhaps his statement had been matter-of-fact, rather than a proposition. Still, she’d need to talk with him when the investigation was over, just to be sure.

  It was a while before people filtered out of the gymnasium. Priscilla heard several families planning to celebrate after the game. Hopefully there would be very few players in need of the bus ride home. The fewer people who rallied around Coach Montgomery, the better. She had no doubt that Arthur wouldn’t hesitate to air the man’s dirty laundry in front of everyone.

  They remained in the stands until there was only a tiny trickle of humanity left in the gym. Anna stood, the maroon and white ribbons in her hair catching the light. “Let me go first.”

  “What? No,” Arthur hissed. “You can’t go down there first.”

  “What do you think he’ll do if he spots you, Dad?” she asked, giving him a stern look. “I actually come to these games often, unlike you two. Stay here for a minute while I butter him up.”

  Before either of them could argue with her, she slung a leg over the next bleacher seat and set off down the rows. Arthur cursed, and Priscilla felt like doing the same. If her heart had been beating, it would have leapt into her throat. Hadn’t enough young people been hurt already? She couldn’t bear to lose Anna.

  Priscilla watched anxiously as Anna approached the stocky blond man and struck up a conversation.

  Benjamin Montgomery greeted her with a handshake and a wide smile. That smile disappeared, and the conversation waned, when Priscilla and Arthur caught up with Anna.

  “Hello, Arthur,” Benjamin said, giving him a wary once-over. “It’s been a while.”

  “Almost three years now, isn’t it?” Arthur said mildly. “The last time I saw you, the girls’ team had won state.”

  “Thanks in no small part to your daughter’s contributions.” The look that Benjamin gave Anna was almost fatherly. Priscilla shuddered. How could he regard someone older than Octavia in a paternal way, all the while dating a girl less than half his age?

  Anna waved it away. “It was no biggie. Hey, coach, do you mind if I chase down the girls? I haven’t seen some of them since I left for college.”

  Before he could answer, Anna sprinted for the exit, calling after someone Priscilla didn’t recognize. It left the three of them huddled together near the entrance of the gymnasium. Coach Montgomery studied them for a moment before finally speaking.

  “I didn’t believe it when my brother told me you two were an item.”

  She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting him to say, but that certainly hadn’t been her first choice. She took a hasty step away from Arthur. “We’re not.”

  “No? You go on dates to basketball games often then, Miss Pratt? I was under the impression you didn’t much care for sports. At least that’s what Anna tells me.”

  Arthur bristled. “You speak to my daughter regularly, do you?”

  Benjamin shrugged. “Sometimes she uses the school track before she goes to work. We’ve talked in the past.”

  “About what?” Arthur asked, voice edged with barely suppressed anger.

  Benjamin crossed his arms over his chest. He was a broad man, but not very tall. He looked unlike his brother in almost every respect. Where Dr. Montgomery was spindly, he was stocky. Dr. Montgomery had sandy hair, while what was left of Benjamin’s hair was still bright blond. So far he matched the description Octavia had given them. Average height, broad, and white. Though that could apply to myriad people in Bellmare, what Octavia had told them next could not. He’d taken out a large loan, and Octavia had been left in the dark as to the reason.

  Arthur had gone knocking on every judge’s door in the county until one of them had granted him a subpoena for Benjamin’s records. Within three days, he’d gotten what he was looking for. Benjamin had recently gotten a loan for exactly $100,000, double the amount it would have taken to contract DeLoreto to carry out a hit on Benjamin’s niece and nephew.

  Benjamin’s eyes narrowed. “What’s this really about, Sharp? And make it quick. The bus leaves in thirty minutes, whether or not I’m on it.”

  “Fine,” Arthur said, taking him by the elbow.

  The younger man bristled and yanked his arm away. “Don’t touch me.”

  Priscilla linked her arm with his and squeezed, letting him feel a fraction of her natural strength. The average human woman of Priscilla’s height and weight could bench seventy pounds. With the transformation, she’d come to find she could lift three times the amount. If she had to, she could probably lift the two-hundred-pound man into the air without much difficulty. She smiled sweetly at him. “Come with us, please. You probably don’t want to talk about this here.”

  To his credit, Benjamin was a strong man for his size. He managed to free his arm by an inch before she tightened her grip, squeezing until the tips of his fingers purpled. He finally gave up after a minute of struggle.

  “Fine, fine. I’ll go with you.”

  She didn’t release his arm until they’d found a quiet, empty hall to talk in. Benjamin’s arm dropped to his side after she let him go, and he rubbed it vigorously to restore circulation.

  “Geez, lady. Was that necessary?”

  “I think so,” Arthur said. “After all, you do run fast.”

  “Why would I run from you?” Benjamin snorted. “No offense, Arthur, but I could outrun you even before your knee replacement. I don’t race the disabled.”

  Arthur’s glare heated by a few degrees. “We need to talk about your nephew and niece.”

  Benjamin’s face closed off at once, and he slipped behind a mask of careful neutrality before Priscilla could ascertain what, exactly, he was feeling.

  “Yes, we do. When do you plan to release their remains to my brother? It’s been a week. There’s nothing more that you can possibly learn from their bodies. Let my family bury them, for God’s sake.”

  He sounded sincere. Priscilla was inclined to believe, just for a moment, that perhaps he was innocent. Then again, she was no expert at reading people, and if he was the sort of man who could order the deaths of his own blood, he was certainly a more cold-hearted person than she.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that until their murderer is caught,” Arthur said.

  “Is that so? How’s it going for you? Has your pet vampire sniffed out any leads for you?”

  Arthur bristled at the implied insult in his tone. Priscilla placed a restraining hand on his arm. “It’s all right, Arthur.”

  “As a matter of fact, she has. We turned up some very interesting information when we revisited the Markinswell Madhouse. Olivia Wick had broken in, and do you want to know what she said?”

  Benjamin’s spine stiffened so subtly that Priscilla didn’t think human eyes would have caught it.

  “What did she say?”

  “She claimed to be responsible for the death of Benedict Montgomery.” Arthur paused to let his words sink in. “But of course, we both know that’s not true, is it?”

  “She’s not that kind of girl.” Benjamin stepped closer to Arthur. “She’s sweet. She couldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “She was slipping your niece marijuana in hopes of getting her in trouble, so I hardly think she’s sweet,” Priscilla said dryly.

  “You don’t even know her!” he practically shouted at her. She winced at the volume. Why did humans insist on being so loud when they were angry?

  “Perhaps not,” Arthur conceded. “But we do know that you’ve been dating her for a year. According to the school board, t
hat’s a firing offense.”

  Benjamin’s face drained of color, leaving him looking a little gray. “She didn’t say that.”

  “She told me everything,” Arthur said. He took a step closer, eliminating the space between them. “Your nephew, Benedict, discovered the affair and threatened to go to the school board with the information unless you broke things off. And coincidentally, you took out a loan that was precisely enough to have a hitman eliminate the four people who could potentially reveal your secret.”

  Benjamin’s face went from gray to purple in an astoundingly short amount of time. His meaty fists curled at his sides and the tendons in his neck strained as he fought an apparent urge to take a swing at Arthur.

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he ground out between his teeth. “You’re dead wrong.”

  “About which part? The unethical courtship of an underage girl, or the fact that you had the means and motive to kill the only thing standing in your way of being with her?”

  Benjamin jabbed a sausage-like finger into Arthur’s chest with enough force to make him rock back a step. “Vi wasn’t underage. She didn’t approach me until she turned eighteen. She’s legal.”

  “But this fraternization isn’t. And I notice you didn’t defend yourself against the other allegation.”

  “Because it’s ridiculous!” Benjamin exploded. Priscilla had to clap her hands over her ears in surprise.

  “Is it?” Arthur asked coldly. “Because where I’m standing, you stood to lose everything if you didn’t shut him up. But of course, after he was dead, you couldn’t be sure he hadn’t told anyone else. So you silenced Clarissa next.”

  “Shut up! Just shut up. You don’t know a damn thing, Arthur Sharp!”

  “Enlighten me, then,” he snarled into the man’s face. “Did you or did you not shoot those innocent kids!”

  Benjamin took a swing at Arthur’s face, and Priscilla barely had time to step between them. It landed solidly on her nose, which broke, and began to spurt blood like a severed hose. She clapped a hand over it. She hadn’t been punched in many years. She’d forgotten how badly it hurt.

  “Priscilla!” Arthur shouted, slinging an arm around her shoulders to keep her from falling.

  Benjamin staggered back, looking stunned. “I ... no. I didn’t mean to hit you. Why did you do that?”

  “That’s it,” Arthur growled. “I’m bringing you in for assault.”

  “No,” she said thickly. “I’ll be fine.”

  She snapped the joint back into place. As long as she got some tape on it and didn’t move it for the next few hours, the bone would begin to fuse. She’d be tender for a day or two, but at least it wouldn’t take her weeks to heal. Arthur had broken enough bones to last one lifetime.

  “This man just broke your nose,” Arthur said, helping her stand straight. “Don’t deny it. I heard the snap.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she repeated. The pain had actually managed to force out what emotion couldn’t, and tears had welled in her eyes. She might as well make use of them. She turned her streaming eyes onto Benjamin, giving him a baleful look.

  “You hired someone to go after your niece and nephew, didn’t you?”

  “No,” he said faintly. “I would never. Yes, I was arguing with the kid, but I’d never kill him.”

  Benjamin’s eyes shone with sudden tears and he turned away before she could see him cry. “I was the first one to hold him when they were living in New Hampshire. Nora went into labor early. Even with the drive time, I still got there first. And I stayed, for her.”

  He cleared his throat and leaned heavily against the wall. “My older brother always got everything he wanted. The girl, the house, Dad’s approval. All except for one thing. He couldn’t give Nora kids. Not even with that damned expensive in vitro stuff. He was shooting blanks.”

  Benjamin sniffled and gave a weary chuckle. “For all his vaunted talents, he couldn’t fix one of the most common infertility problems out there. He was beside himself for years. I swear his biological clock was ticking louder than hers. So one day, Nora came to me in secret with a proposition.”

  He turned toward her, and Priscilla’s heart sank right to her toes. No matter how badly she had judged people in the past, she knew one thing. This was not the face of a killer. His eyes were red-rimmed and he was badly in need of a Kleenex.

  “‘You look just like Lucas,’ Nora said. ‘No one has to know except the doctor, and the two of us’.”

  “You gave her your DNA, didn’t you?” Priscilla asked quietly.

  “In a little cup, in the doctor’s office. The doctor inseminated her that day. And nine months later, they were born.”

  He turned an accusatory stare on Arthur. “Tell me. Could you, or any father, kill your own kid?”

  Arthur was silent, as stunned by this new development as Priscilla was. But Benjamin wasn’t done talking.

  “Olivia was the only one who knew, besides Nora. She’s a smart cookie. She knew that Benjamin and Clarissa weren’t Lucas’ because of a blood-typing test she did in biology. Lucas is Type A, as he is in all things, and Nora is Type O+. So they should have been some variant thereof, right? So how did Clarissa end up with Type B?”

  He smiled for the first time since they’d met. “She didn’t care. She didn’t care that I was an underpaid teacher and glorified babysitter on that field. She didn’t care that I got cut off by Grandpa Montgomery. She didn’t care that I fathered two kids and never once got called Dad. She just wanted to be with me. Do you know how refreshing that was, to have someone want me for me, and not for what I could do for them?”

  “I don’t see how this plays into the loan,” Arthur said wearily. Priscilla could hear the surrender in his voice. He knew as well as she that Benjamin wasn’t a killer. A bully, and a questionable judge of character, maybe, but not a killer.

  He wiped his nose on his shirt sleeve, which made Priscilla wince. She made a mental note never to shake his hand in the future. “I knew I couldn’t stay here after Octavia graduated. If it got out, I’d be ruined. So I made a compromise with Benedict. After graduation, I’d retire and move to another county. I was getting a house in Suffolk, but I needed a loan. It’s too expensive otherwise.”

  Arthur blew out a breath and reached into his back pocket. He offered a red bandana to Benjamin, who took it without looking him in the eye. He mopped up his face and then blew his nose.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Arthur said in an undertone. “But I still need an alibi. Can anyone substantiate your whereabouts for the time of the murders?”

  Benjamin nodded. “During the first I was at a bank in Boston, checking in on the loan. And during the second I was on the bus, on the way to a game. Ask any of the girls. They had to put up with my singing voice for three hours. I’m sure they haven’t forgotten it.”

  Arthur nodded. “I’ll have Officers Allen and Evans look into it. And I’m sorry for wasting your time. We’ll go.”

  “Wait,” Benjamin said. “You said someone was hired to do this. Do you know who?”

  “I’m not really at liberty to say,” Arthur hedged. “But I doubt you know any Italian mobsters, Mr. Montgomery.”

  “Italian?” he said with a frown. “I met an Italian guy the other day. Nora hired him as a florist for the ball. For the life of me, I can’t remember his name though.”

  “DeLoreto?” Priscilla suggested.

  Benjamin snapped his fingers. “That’s it. He was a horrible fit. Tried to put together roses, orange blossoms, and freesia. Do you know how strong those fragrances are? All of them centerpiece flowers. Needless to say, he was fired after the rehearsal.”

  She and Arthur exchanged a glance. Priscilla spoke first, asking the burning question on both their minds.

  “Does she still happen to have his number?”

  “Maybe. I can ask. Why?”

  “He’s a person of interest,” Arthur said, telling a careful half-truth. “Do you happen to k
now where your brother and his wife are now?”

  “At home,” Benjamin said. “Nora’s been beside herself, and Lucas has been batting off the vultures who want to sue him for malpractice.”

  “A malpractice suit?” Arthur latched onto the information eagerly. “Do you know who’s suing him?”

  “A couple of people, actually. It’s why they left New Hampshire and settled in this rinky-dink town. Too much notoriety there. Do you think that has something to do with it?”

  Arthur nodded. “Thank you for that piece of information. We’ll let you get back to your team, Coach. And if you wouldn’t mind, see to it that your family is on high alert. I’ll call the boys and send in a uniform, just in case.”

  Benjamin’s brow furrowed. “All right, I will. But why?”

  “Because,” Arthur said grimly. “I don’t think Benedict was the intended target.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  They’d arrived back in Bellmare three hours ago, and Arthur was still on the phone, calling every single man, woman, or child who’d ever filed a complaint against Dr. Lucas Montgomery.

  It was an arduous process, not made any better by the fact that a lot of people had hated the Montgomerys in their home state, apparently. Benjamin was the only one who’d been well-received by anyone in Manchester, and it was only because he’d led the high school he’d worked for to victory at a state championship years before.

  Priscilla was beginning to worry that perhaps they’d gotten on the wrong track, and that the motive hadn’t been malpractice. The Montgomerys hadn’t had a decent family member in decades, it seemed.

  She flicked through the pile of paperwork in front of her. She and three other deputies were sorting through the unofficial list of suspects compiled by Dr. Montgomery and Benjamin. These were just the ones that were a matter of public record. Arthur was trying to subpoena more.