by Ellery Adams
“Did her parents object to him?”
“You really don’t know a thing about them, do you?” Hattie shook her head. “They hated Curtis because his father was a shop owner, and his mother worked at the library. He was a threat to their plans to marry Galina off to another rich kid, someone like her, inherited wealth and all. When Galina was thirteen, they started sending her to a ritzy summer camp in Switzerland so she could meet Mr. Right.”
“I see. Curtis was Mr. Wrong.”
“Ah. So you do understand.”
“Yes, sadly, I do,” Molly said. “Did you go to a private school?”
“No. Public all the way. I can see from your expression you’re surprised. You think the Gordons must have sent Galina to private school, but oh no, that was part of their plan to make the locals like them. They pretended to be like everyone else, but only a fool would believe it. They weren’t normal people, or normal parents. They were always traveling, collecting artwork, buying antiques. Galina hardly saw them when she was growing up, but even from afar, they controlled her life. You know, I think she spent more time with her nanny, and Peggy the cook, than her own parents. Isn’t that awful?”
“Yes, it is. What about Natasha? Did they control her, too?”
Hattie waved her hand in the air. Her long fingernails were artificial and painted red. “Natasha was twelve years older than Galina. She was the quiet one, the good girl who never gave them any trouble. Galina felt like an oops baby. She thought her parents would have been perfectly happy with Natasha being an only child.”
Molly didn’t like what she was hearing. Galina’s parents sounded like terrible people. “When did they find out Galina and Curtis were a couple?”
“They started going steady freshman year, and they managed to keep it a secret for four years. He gave Galina a ring, and she’d take it off before she went home.” Hattie grinned. “They never had a clue. The only person who knew they were a couple, besides me and Felix, was Peggy. And maybe some kids at school, but no one would ever rat out Galina.”
“She told Peggy, the cook?”
“Yeah. She was really close to her. It wasn’t until senior year that she told her parents. Because of the prom. She had to tell them, because she wanted to go with Curtis. Saying they weren’t pleased would be an understatement, but they did give their permission, because they didn’t know how long she’d been seeing him, and they hoped it would fizzle out by the end of the school year, which, of course, it didn’t.”
Molly thought it was a shame that Galina had felt the need to hide her relationship with Curtis. She couldn’t imagine not telling her mother if someone had asked her to go steady in high school. “Did Galina tell her sister she was seeing Curtis?”
“Are you kidding? She knew better than to confide in Natasha. She would have snitched on her and told their parents. She was such a do-gooder. Like I said, the only adult Galina trusted was Peggy.”
“You said Natasha was twelve years older. What was she doing in those days?”
“Living at home, like always,” Hattie said. “Natasha was a homebody. She never went to college. All she ever wanted to do was live at Misty Vale with her parents, collect art and antiques, and host fundraisers. Talk about a chip off the old block. Her parents loved it, though. In fact, they groomed her for the job, because they wanted her to take over the estate when they were gone.” She took another sip of her drink, peering at Molly over the rim of the glass. “But here I am, rambling on and on about the Gordons. What have they got to do with Curtis?”
“It helps me build a picture of him, and the people in his life, past and present. Were you disappointed he didn’t ask you to go steady with him?”
“Of course. I was crazy about him, too.” A smile suddenly lit Hattie’s face. “But I had him to myself every summer, while Galina was in Switzerland. We saw each other every day.” She sighed deeply. “I used to long for summer. It was the only time I could have him all to myself.”
“Were you just friends, or . . . ?”
“Oh, we were much more than friends. He was the first boy I ever kissed, or ever really loved.” For the first time, a sheen of tears glazed her eyes. Perhaps the shock of Curtis dying so unexpectedly was beginning to wear off. Reality was setting in.
“Did Galina know you and Curtis were seeing each other while she was abroad?”
“God, no. At least, I don’t think so. We never told her, and she never said anything about it. We were very discreet. We didn’t want to hurt her.”
“You didn’t feel bad, sneaking around behind her back?”
Hattie frowned. “We were teenagers. Hormones were raging. She wasn’t here, and I was. It wasn’t my fault her parents sent her away. Let’s talk about something else.”
“Okay. Tell me about Felix’s relationship with Galina. Did her parents worry she might develop an attachment to the cook’s son?”
“Never. Felix was always close to Galina. They grew up together. But they knew they didn’t have to worry about him running off with her. Not if his mother wanted to keep her job. Peggy was a single mom and raised him on her own. Felix knew better than to overstep his bounds. Friendship was approved, but anything else, even a hint of it, and they would have sacked Peggy.” Hattie set her glass on the table and got up to put a few more logs on the fire. She settled back onto the couch and lifted the glass to her lips, taking a long drink. “That’s not to say there weren’t feelings on Felix’s part. Galina thought of him as a brother, a best friend, but nothing more. But he probably fell in love with her before he could even talk.”
“Was he jealous of Curtis?”
“Oh, yeah. They never hit it off. When Galina and Curtis announced their engagement, he took her parents’ side and tried to talk her out of it. He told her not to underestimate them, that they meant it when they said they were going to cut off her allowance, and disown her, if she married him. Galina wasn’t happy about losing her inheritance, but what could she do? She was in love. As for Felix, he had to accept it, or risk losing her forever.”
“Did you try to talk Galina out of marrying Curtis?”
“No, because I knew it wouldn’t do any good. The four years she was in college, her parents tried to derail the relationship by introducing her to more suitable men. It drove Galina crazy, but she put up with it, because as long as she went on the dates, they weren’t nagging her about breaking up with Curtis. She was determined to marry him.”
“What did she think would happen when she did?”
“She thought they’d come around to accepting him,” Hattie said. She took another sip of her drink. “They went ahead and married a few months after they graduated college, and when they got home from their honeymoon, she found a letter in her mailbox from her parents’ attorneys. They told her they’d cut off her allowance, written her out of their will, and disowned her. She was really upset about it.”
“I can imagine,” Molly said. “How did Curtis handle the news?”
“He was super angry. I thought he might leave Galina, but then she got pregnant right away with Maxim, and he stayed.” Hattie took another, longer sip of her drink. “I didn’t have the greatest relationship with my folks, but they were saints compared to the Gordons. Do you get along with your parents?”
“I’m very close to my mother,” Molly said. “I don’t know my father. He left us when I was a baby.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“It’s all right. You can’t miss what you’ve never had.” Molly wasn’t being entirely truthful. She did miss having a father when she was growing up. Every year on her birthday, she’d wait to see if a card would arrive in the mail, or a phone call would be placed. She was sixteen when she finally came to terms with the fact that her father was never going to contact her. His absence only made her love and appreciate her mother even more, and she’d had a happy childhood. Her mother was her best friend, someone she knew she could always count on. “Where did Galina and Curtis get married?”
&n
bsp; “In Burlington, at the courthouse. Galina got all dolled up. She bought a beautiful gown, had a huge bouquet, and she bought me a pretty dress, too. I stood up with her. Curtis’s parents came to the ceremony, which I always thought was nice of them. They felt bad about the way Galina’s parents were treating her. Of course, Felix didn’t come to the wedding. He said he was ill, which he probably was, thinking about her marrying anyone, and especially Curtis. One of Curtis’s college buddies stood up with him. Felix never did marry.” She took another long drink. She was really guzzling it down. “Come to think of it, I’m not sure he’s ever dated anyone.”
“Do you think he stayed a bachelor because of Galina?”
Hattie looked at her as if she was dim. “Every week since Galina was buried at Fairhill Cemetery, he’s been bringing fresh flowers to her grave, and if you mention her name, he starts to cry. What do you think?”
“Well, it has only been a couple of months since she died.”
“So what? Life goes on.”
“Yes, it does,” Molly said. “But it can take time to mourn someone you love.”
Hattie slugged down the rest of her drink. “I told Felix, he needs to let go,” she said. “Now he’ll probably be lecturing me to do the same. He’s always got something to say.” She sounded angry, but Molly thought it might not be anger directed at Felix. She had to be hurting after losing Galina and Curtis, her closest friends. “After I moved in with Curtis, Felix told me he was disappointed in us, that we should have waited at least a year before we moved in together. I reminded him it wasn’t a secret we’ve been friends all these years, so why shouldn’t we take our relationship to the next level? He said it was disrespectful to Galina’s memory.” She paused. “He blames Curtis for her death. As if Curtis could’ve stopped her from going for a swim in the ocean. No one could stop Galina from doing what she wanted. She was as stubborn as Curtis. Maybe even more so.”
Molly thought this was interesting. Love was a powerful thing, and if Felix was in love with Galina, even to this day, and he blamed Curtis for her death, he could have been seeking revenge, which meant he had a reason to kill him. Was there anyone else with such a strong motive?
“I know none of this is easy to talk about,” Molly said, “but I need to ask if you can think of anyone who might have wanted to harm Curtis, or had a dispute with him. Or maybe you’ve seen or heard something weird or out of the ordinary lately.”
“Well . . .” Hattie hesitated, but only for a split second. “When Curtis told Maxim that I’d moved in with him, Maxim got real angry. He hadn’t spoken to his father until about three weeks ago, and that only happened because Curtis called him. He wanted to let him know the shop was in jeopardy of closing and he was facing bankruptcy. It was the first time I heard about it, too. Curtis asked me to sit in on the call, and I thought, naïvely, he’s going to ask Maxim and Kurt to come to our house for Thanksgiving to try to mend fences. Instead, he laid this shocker on both of us. When he got off the phone with Maxim, I told him I didn’t appreciate being blindsided, that he should have told me.”
Hattie’s voice was gleeful. She’s enjoying this, Molly thought. She sounds vindictive. Perhaps Felix wasn’t the only one with jealousy issues.
Hattie went on. “Natasha has been giving Curtis a hard time. They’ve basically always avoided each other as much as they could. But when Galina died, Natasha took the gloves off. She told him he had until the first of the year to find a new place to live.”
Molly was surprised. “She was kicking him out?”
“Yeah. She said she didn’t like me living here, but I think it was more than that. She never approved of Curtis. I wouldn’t doubt if she blamed him for Galina’s death, too.” Hattie’s bare foot started swinging faster. “Anyway, I told Curtis we could rent an apartment in town. The place I lived at before was real nice, but he said no, we’re going to stay right here. He said he’d work something out with Natasha.”
“Did he work something out?”
“Not that I know of.” Hattie’s mouth turned down. “It was a work in progress.”
“Do you plan to ask her if you can stay?”
“Why would I? She doesn’t want me living on the estate. She’s a snob, like her parents.” A stiff breeze rattled the window, and Molly glanced outside. The pine boughs across the street were bending in the wind. Hattie said, “I met Galina in kindergarten. I spent a lot of time at Misty Vale when I was a kid. Natasha knows me. It’s not like I’m a stranger. The way she treated me and Curtis, it wasn’t fair. But I wasn’t surprised. We would never be good enough for her.”
Molly drank her water. The logs settled into the flames, hissing and sparking. The small room was getting hotter by the minute, and she was sweating under her turtleneck.
“How about you and Curtis? Were things good between you?”
“Yeah, sure, they were great,” Hattie said, but her tone sounded flat, and Molly thought she wasn’t being completely honest. She sighed deeply. “Look, the truth is, Curtis wasn’t the easiest person to get along with. He had these mood swings, and, well, let’s just say he wasn’t fun to be around when he was in one of his dark moods.”
“Did you know about the mood swings when you moved in?”
“Yes, because Galina told me years ago. But I always thought he was being cranky because he was stuck in an unhappy marriage.” Hattie looked into her glass. She seemed surprised to find it empty. “I loved him so much. I really wanted to make it work. And now he’s gone . . .” Her voice faded. She looked up at Molly with tears in her eyes. She blinked, her long eyelashes batting them away. She can’t pretend forever that she’s not hurting, Molly thought.
“What will you do now?”
“I don’t know,” Hattie said. “Maybe I’ll buy a condo in the city. Unlike Curtis, I have plenty of money. I got a big settlement when my husband and I divorced.” She put the glass on the coffee table and stood up. Cinching the belt of her kimono tighter around her waist, she said, “I’m sorry, Molly, but I can’t talk about this anymore. I’d like you to go.”
Chapter 7
Molly cranked the car’s heat up as she sat outside the cottage, the engine idling. The sky had grown darker and a gusty wind had blown up while she was talking to Hattie, and now the temperature was dropping. She grabbed her scarf off the passenger seat and wrapped it around her neck. Then she checked her phone for messages, in case Maxim had arranged a time for her to talk to Natasha. There was nothing from him.
She hit her speed-dial for Lombardi. When he answered, she said, “I thought you’d like to know I just talked to Hattie. She told me how she met Curtis, and warned him not to get close to Galina, because she knew her parents would never accept him. Obviously, he didn’t take her advice.” She gave him a rundown of their conversation. Lombardi listened quietly. “In the end, I’ve concluded Galina’s parents were horrible people,” she said. “They weren’t around much when she was growing up. They traveled a lot buying artwork and antiques.”
“Fascinating stuff, for a soap opera. What’s it got to do with Curtis’s death?”
“Curtis met Galina, Hattie, and Felix Shaw in ninth grade. These relationships go back a long time. If Hattie was telling the truth about Felix having feelings for Galina and blaming him for her death, then there’s one person with a very good motive for killing Curtis.”
“If you think Felix killed him to get revenge, then you have to add Maxim to your list. Hattie told you he was angry because she moved in with him.”
Molly didn’t want to think of Maxim as a suspect, but Lombardi was right. She had to consider his relationship with his father. “We can’t let Natasha off the hook either,” she said. “She didn’t like Curtis, and he died at her house. Although it does seem a bit risky killing him at home, during a party.”
“Not if she thought it would influence how I treat her as a potential suspect,” he said. “You did good, Molly. You managed to get more out of Hattie than I did.”
; “Just so you know, she did tear up a couple of times. I think it’s beginning to dawn on her that Curtis is gone.”
“What’s your personal take on her? Do you trust her?”
“I don’t think she was lying to me, but I don’t trust her because of the way she threw Natasha, Maxim, and Felix under the bus. These are people she’s known most of her life, but she didn’t hesitate to point the finger of guilt at them. I do think she was surprised when she moved in with Curtis and found he wasn’t an easy person to live with. She thought his mood swings were a result of him being in an unhappy marriage, but realized that had little to do with it. She abruptly ended the interview when it came up, because she didn’t want to keep talking about it. But do you think being disappointed in someone is enough of a reason to kill them?”
“I had a case years ago where a man stabbed his wife to death because she didn’t get dinner on the table when he wanted it. I’ve given up trying to figure out what goes on in the mind of a killer. Who’s next on your list?”
“Natasha. Maxim’s supposed to be setting up a time for me to meet with her, but I haven’t heard back from him. Since I’m here, though, I think I’ll take a drive over to the manor house and knock on the door, in case she can see me now. Can I ask what you’re up to?”
“I just got back from poking around Rarus Books, and now I’m going to put together a schedule for the door knockers I’ll be sending out tomorrow. We have to talk to all the gala ball guests who left the house last night before we could get their statements. Natasha gave me a list of their names.”
Molly knew when Lombardi said he was poking around Rarus Books he was actually searching the premises, looking for any possible clues in Curtis’s professional life that might help him figure out why someone would want to kill him. And since he hadn’t offered to tell her what, if anything, he’d found, she didn’t bother to ask.
