“Kelly do you want to share the messages or are they something personal?”
She opened her eyes and said, “Ryan, I don’t know what to make of them, but I’m concerned. First let me fill you in on a couple of things.” She told him about her dinner with Clint and Celia’s suspicion that he might have installed a phone tap on Mrs. Logan’s phone.
She continued, “The first message was from Jasper, who is Julie’s mother’s driver. After he took me to the airport around noon today he got a call from Clint asking Jasper to pick him up and take him to a nearby private airport. Jasper said Clint did that from time to time, and Mrs. Logan didn’t mind. Evidently Clint had hired a private plane. Jasper said he’d been drinking heavily, but what was frightening to Jasper was that Clint had shaved off his goatee and all of his hair. His bright red hair and bright red goatee were completely gone, according to Jasper. He’d even shaved his eyebrows.
“He said there was absolutely no trace of his trademark red hair. Jasper said it was just weird. He asked Clint where he was going, but Clint wouldn’t tell him. The only thing he said was ‘that he needed to take care of a business matter.’ Jasper couldn’t figure out what kind of business he needed to take care of, because as far as he knew, Clint had never had any business dealings. He told Mrs. Logan’s caregiver about it, and both of them thought I should know about it. He said he wasn’t going to tell Mrs. Logan.”
“I agree it’s certainly unusual behavior, but I fail to see what it has to do with Julie’s death.”
“Me neither, but for some reason it makes me nervous. The second message was from Celia, Mrs. Logan’s caregiver. She said Jonathan, the electrician the Logan family has used for years, had searched the drawing room for an electronic telephone bug. He found one that had been put on the phone jack. He said whoever put it there was able to monitor all conversations that took place on the house phone. If it was Clint, it would certainly explain how he knew Julie and her daughter had reunited and that Megan had red hair. He probably also knew that Mrs. Logan had given Julie a gift of ten million dollars.
“I honestly don’t know what to think, Ryan, but it seems to me I should move Clint up to the top of the suspect list. The problem is, I have no idea how I or anyone else can prove he’s the murderer.” She sighed deeply. “By the way, I have a legal question to ask you.”
“Go ahead. Ask your question, and I’ll help you if I can, but first I want to talk to you about Julie’s will. I got it from the bank vault and just as we thought, she hadn’t changed it. Under the terms of the will her husband, Mark Jensen, is to receive distribution of her entire estate. Kind of ironic, given the fact they were going to get divorced, and she’d made an appointment with me to prepare a new will, but the law’s the law. According to her will Mark’s entitled to the ten million dollars Julie’s mother gave her last week. Wow, what a strange turn of events. Sorry, Kelly, I’m rambling. What did you want to ask me?”
“If Megan can prove she’s Julie’s daughter, and I have no reason to think she wouldn’t be able to, could she sue her mother’s estate claiming that she’s Julie’s rightful heir?”
Ryan was quiet for a few moments while he thought about Kelly’s question. “You know that anyone can sue for any reason, but I don’t see her doing it for two reasons. She’s an adoption attorney, and she, above all people, would know that when a parent gives a child up for adoption, that means the child is entitled to nothing further from their biological parent. In other words, the cord is completely severed. Secondly, while she could sue, Julie’s will clearly states that her husband is to receive her entire estate. A child given up for adoption would have no valid claim to that money. The terms of Julie’s will trump the inheritance rights of an heir. If Julie didn’t have a will, that might be a different story. Ahh, there’s her house now.”
Ryan parked the SUV in the driveway, while Kelly looked out the window at the house. “Ryan, this is charming. Her house must be a hundred years old. The green shutters are a perfect accent to the white paint and the white picket fence. It looks like something out of a storybook right down to the trees in bloom and the shrubbery. With the riot of color around the house, she must have planted hundreds of bulbs last fall. If her house is any indication of what she was like, I have a feeling I really would have liked her.”
They got out of his SUV and walked over to the steps leading up to the front door which had a spring wreath displayed on it. “Kelly, what are you looking for? Anything specific? What would you like me to do?” Ryan asked.
“Well, I’m not looking for anything specific. Now that you have the will, that’s not an issue anymore. I just hope to run across something that will help me figure out this case. What I think we should do to maximize our time is for each of us to take one room at a time and see if we can find anything.” Ryan unlocked the door and they walked into the house and started looking around.
“Why don’t you take the living room and dining room? I’ll take her bedroom and her office,” Kelly said. “Once those four rooms are done, we can decide what else we need to do. I think we can rule out the garage. It’s been my experience that garages are more of a male domain, so I’d really be surprised if there was anything of interest to us in it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ryan said, as he walked into the living room. Kelly heard the sound of drawers being opened as he began his search. She walked down the hall looking in the bedrooms. At the end of the hall was a large bedroom with French doors which opened out onto a large grassy expanse and contained more trees and flowers.
CHAPTER 23
I know I would have liked her, Kelly thought, as she walked into what she assumed had been Julie’s bedroom. It’s just as charming as the outside of the house. Feminine, but not cutesy-poosey, if that’s even a word. Think I’ll start with the nightstand.
Kelly opened the nightstand drawer and gasped when she saw a small pistol in it. Why would Julie feel she had to sleep with a gun next to her? I wonder if she’d been threatened. She checked the gun and made sure the safety was on and then took it out of the drawer. Thirty minutes later she was certain there was nothing in the bedroom that would help resolve her unanswered questions about Julie’s murder.
She walked down the hall to a room that was clearly being used as an office. A large brightly colored Oriental rug was positioned in the center of the room, covering the highly polished wood floor. Against one wall was an antique roll top oak desk. Across from it was an upholstered couch repeating the bright reds, blues, creams, and lilacs of the Oriental rug. Kelly looked in the drawer of the small table that was positioned between the couch and a large chair with an ottoman and found nothing. On the table was a pile of books. She leafed through them and again found nothing. Bookcases flanked the floor to ceiling French windows which looked out on hanging flower baskets attached to a small patio overhang. The baskets were filled with brightly colored trailing plants.
As she was carefully examining each shelf, a book caught her eye entitled “The Logan Family History.” It had been written by Marcy Logan and carefully documented the original Logan family members who had come to the United States from Scotland during the Colonial period. Composed of nearly three hundred fifty pages, the book was rather large and heavy. It was filled with photographs of the people mentioned in the book. Kelly put it on the couch, intending to give it to Megan. Actually, she thought, there’s really no one else. It doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing Clint would like, and since I have serious concerns about him, I’m definitely going to give it to Megan.
She sat down at the desk and booted up Julie’s computer. Evidently Julie wasn’t concerned about someone hacking her computer, because it wasn’t password protected, or if it was, she hadn’t bothered to use it. Kelly went through emails, files, the last web sites Julie had visited, and anything else she thought might provide some information or help. She found nothing. After she decided it was a dead end, she opened a small drawer on the right hand side of the desk. Julie h
ad carefully stacked various bills and receipts in the drawer. Kelly glanced through them and found nothing of interest.
Kelly pulled the drawer out as far it would go and saw a checkbook in the back. She opened it and looked at the check register which recorded the checks written and deposits made for the last month. There was nothing out of the ordinary except the ten-million-dollar deposit which had been noted.
She continued her search of the other desk drawers, finding labeled manila folders for things like household maintenance, insurance, etc., but nothing of interest. As she was preparing to leave the room, something about the checkbook nagged her. She took it out of the drawer again and noticed that the packet containing a supply of blank deposit slips had been inserted at an extremely odd angle, and as much of a perfectionist as Julie seemed to have been, Kelly thought she would have made sure the edges were evenly aligned. She pulled the deposit packet out of the checkbook’s plastic holder and gingerly stuck her finger into the empty slot. She felt a piece of paper and pulled it out. A look of shock crossed her face as she read the words written on the paper, “You’ll never live to spend the ten million dollars.”
She dropped it on the desk and called out, “Hey, Ryan, would you mind coming back here to the office? I’ve found something.”
A moment later Ryan entered the room. “Kelly, are you all right? You’re as white as a ghost. What did you find?”
She wordlessly handed the piece of paper to him, watching his expression as he read it. He put it down on the desk and said, “That’s pretty ominous. What do you think?”
“The same thing I’m sure you’re thinking. I read it as a threat. Actually it’s more than just a threat, it’s a death threat, and it certainly explains why I found a loaded pistol in the drawer of Julie’s nightstand.”
“Do you think she knew who sent it? I wonder if it was hand-delivered or mailed to her.”
“I have no idea,” Kelly said. “This is all I found, and it was wedged behind the deposit packet in her checkbook. That doesn’t seem like a random place to put something. There’s nothing to indicate when, or how, or even where it was received by her. According to her checkbook records she received the ten million dollars a week before she was to graduate. Her mother told me it was a graduation present.”
“What do you want to do now? I don’t think there’s any point in calling the authorities, do you? Since the murder happened in Virginia, I suppose you could call the police chief there, but from what you told me, it doesn’t sound like he’d do much with this kind of information.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it, but I’m going to take it with me. I guess Mark will get this house too, am I right?” Kelly asked.
“Yes, it’s obviously part of her estate.”
“I think I’ll take the gun with me as well as this paper and a book I found about the Logan family history. I’m uncomfortable leaving a gun in a house when someone’s been murdered. I’ll take it home and give it my husband. I’m sure sheriffs have ways to dispose of unwanted guns.”
“Kelly, it’s already six-thirty. You mentioned you wanted to try and see Megan tonight. Why don’t you give her a call? If we spend an hour or so there, you’re going to get home pretty late, and I imagine your husband will be getting concerned.”
“Ryan,” she grinned, “you don’t know the half of it. My husband is always concerned when I’m involved in anything, particularly if it’s a murder investigation. I also have to admit his concern is often with good reason. I do have a way of getting into, how shall I put it, some interesting situations.”
She took her phone out of her purse and got the number for the Heathman Hotel. A moment later she heard a voice inquire, “How may I direct your call?”
“I believe you have a guest staying there by the name of Megan Simmons. Would you connect me to her room? Thank you.”
Kelly had an old habit of crossing her fingers behind her back if she was on iffy ground with Mike. The gesture came naturally to her, and she found she was crossing her fingers, hoping Megan was there and would agree to see her.
“Hello,” a soft female voice said.
“Is this Megan Simmons?” Kelly asked.
“Yes. Who’s calling?”
“Megan, my name is Kelly Reynolds. You don’t know me, but I’m a very good friend of Stephanie Rocco. Your mother worked for her here in Portland. I went to Virginia last Saturday to see her receive a graduate degree from a university in Virginia, and I saw your mother graduate as well. I have something for you, and I’m hoping I can meet with you at your hotel in a few minutes.”
“That sounds interesting. I haven’t heard from my mother for a few days, and I was going to call her later. If you have something for me, I’ll wait and tell her about it. I’m in room 507. When will you be here?”
Kelly looked over at Ryan who indicated they could be there in fifteen minutes. “I should be there in about fifteen minutes. I’m looking forward to meeting you,” she said with a sinking heart, knowing she was going to have to be the one to tell Megan that the mother she had just found had been murdered. “Let’s go, Ryan, I’m not looking forward to this, but I didn’t want to tell her over the phone.”
CHAPTER 24
Due to heavy downtown traffic Ryan was off by five minutes in his fifteen minute travel time estimate for how long it would take them to get to Megan’s hotel. He drove up to the hotel entrance, stopped, and handed the car keys to the valet. A second valet held the door open for them. “Ryan, this is a beautiful hotel. The chandeliers and the wood are incredible. No wonder it’s considered to be one of Portland’s finest.”
“Yes, if it’s not the best hotel in Portland, it’s right up there. I’ve often met clients here and have never been disappointed in anything dealing with it.” They walked through the lobby to the bank of elevators. Ryan turned to Kelly and said, “I need to use the men’s room before I go up to Megan’s room. It’s 507 right? I’ll just be a few minutes.”
“Yes, it’s 507. Take your time. I’ll meet you there.”
Kelly rode the elevator up to the fifth floor and stepped out. The sign on the wall across from the elevator indicated that room 507 was to the left. She looked at the room numbers on the doors and realized it was at the far end of the hall. A few moments later she knocked on the door to room 507.
“Who is it?” a voice asked. Although the voice sounded similar to Megan’s voice on the phone a short while ago, this one seemed to be tense, almost teary. What is this all about, Kelly wondered.
“Megan, it’s Kelly Reynolds. I spoke to you a few minutes ago.”
The door opened, and Kelly looked at the woman in front of her who had a terror stricken look on her face. “Come in,” she stammered tremulously. Kelly walked in and suddenly a hand reached out from behind Megan and slammed the door. Kelly whirled around and the first thing she was a gun pointing at her chest. She raised her eyes and saw that the gun was being held by Clint Logan.
“Glad you called, Kelly. You saved me a lot of trouble. I tried to take care of you in York, but that stupid brother-in-law of mine and his dumb dog wouldn’t let me. Too bad. I just told my niece that her mother isn’t around anymore.
“You see, I had to kill Julie to make sure I got all of Mother’s money when she died, not just some of it. I’ve always hated my sister and all the special treatment she got from my mother and father. When I listened to the phone tap I put on her phone and found out she’d given Julie ten million dollars, it put me over the edge.
“I knew I had to act, and I had to act fast before the old biddy died, so I hopped on a plane to Norfolk, found Julie in her hotel room and shot her. I planted her wallet, jewelry, and the pistol I’d used to kill Julie on some drunken bum I saw in the parking lot as I was leaving. I slugged him on the head as hard as I could with an iron bar I found by a broken gate. I made it look like he’d fallen and suffered a skull fracture. Sort of ironic, one drunk kills another one. The whole package turned
out nice and neat, and according to the local paper I read, the police chief says the case is closed.
“Since Megan’s the only other person that can lay claim to Mother’s estate, I thought it might be a good idea to get rid of her before Mother decides to leave Julie’s share to her. You can both sit down for a moment. It’s a shame I’m going to have to kill my niece when I’ve just met her, but I don’t have much choice, and I don’t have much time. I told the pilot that flew me out here this wouldn’t take long, and it won’t.”
He looked directly at Megan and said in a slurred voice, “You got the Logan red hair, that’s for sure. You look just like your mother did when she was your age. Good thing I shaved my head and beard. No one here at the hotel will associate me with the redhead I’ll be in a couple of weeks or so. And who would even think I’d come to Portland in the first place? No one. Either of you got any last words you want to say, because it’s about time,” he said as he raised the gun and pointed it at Kelly’s head with a crazy and wild look in his eyes.
Just then there was a knock on the door. “Who are you expecting?” he hissed.
“No one,” Megan replied.
“Go to the door and look through the peephole,” he said.
“It’s a friend of mine that came with me,” Kelly said. “He went to the restroom. He knows I’m in here.”
“Then Kelly, you go to the door instead of Megan and let him in. I wasn’t planning on anything but Megan’s death, but now I guess it will have to be all three of you.”
Kelly walked over to the door as Clint stepped to a position where he would be hidden behind the door once Kelly opened it, but his gun swung menacingly back and forth between Kelly and Megan. She opened the door and saw Ryan standing there. The only thing she could think to do that Clint couldn’t see from his position behind the door was to blink rapidly with her eyes.
Murder on the East Coast: A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Page 11
