by Anne Canadeo
“How bad?” Lucy asked. “Was he ever arrested?”
“Ellie didn’t go into the specifics. She did say that he’d told her about some of this dirty laundry before they got married. Obviously, not everything.”
She glanced over at Maggie and then at the rest of her friends. “I guess we’ll hear the rest when we get there.”
Suzanne had taken out a compact and was freshening her lipstick. “I’d make some corny joke about the guy having skeletons in his closet . . . but I don’t even want to go there.”
Maggie shook her head. “Good move. Please don’t.”
• • •
On the drive over to the Krueger farm, Maggie and Dana did not speculate about Ben’s unsavory past. There would be plenty of time to talk about that tonight, Maggie thought as Dana’s Volvo cruised up the gravel drive in front of the farmhouse. They’d picked up some dinner and wine. Ellie said she had dessert and not to bother with that.
As they walked toward the house they met Dot, who had just come out the back door.
“Oh, hello. You’re Ellie’s friends, from the knitting shop, right? Nice to see you again. I’m glad you came out here tonight. I hate to leave Ellie alone. She seems so upset. But I have to go to my other job now, in town.”
Dot had lowered her voice a notch and spoken with concern. Maggie realized Dot had to be aware of the tension between Ellie and Ben, and maybe even had overheard their argument. It was practically unavoidable when they lived in such close proximity. But Ellie’s helper did seem genuinely concerned and glad to see Ellie would have company.
“Oh, we’ll cheer her up,” Dana promised. “We have a load of sushi, a good movie—”
“And we brought our knitting,” Maggie added.
“Sounds like a real party. Sorry I can’t stay,” Dot replied with a grin. “But Mrs. Foley needs me. That’s the woman I work for. She’s having a rough time right now,” she said sadly. “The llamas should be fine through the night. Ellie has my number if anything comes up.”
“We’ll take good care of Ellie and the llamas, too. Don’t worry,” Maggie told her.
The women said good night and Dot headed toward her cottage. Dana and Maggie walked up to the farmhouse, where Ellie was now waiting for them, framed by the doorway, in a welcoming, golden light.
A short time later, they were all seated around the table in Ellie’s kitchen, picking and choosing pieces of sushi from the big platter that Ellie had arranged for them.
“I think I’m so nimble with chopsticks from all these years of knitting,” Maggie remarked as she slipped a bit of marinated ginger on her dish.
“Ben loves sushi. He’s probably eating some right now.” Ellie sighed and dipped a piece of sashimi in a tiny bowl of soy sauce. “That’s one thing he didn’t really like about moving here. Nobody delivers this far out. It was a big change from the city, where we could just step out the door and find anything we wanted.”
Maggie glanced at Dana. So far, they’d just passed the time with small talk, but this seemed like a good moment to initiate some big talk—to ask what the police had uncovered about Ben.
Dana seemed to feel the same, or had picked up some subtle cue from Maggie, but she started on a more positive note.
“We have some good news for you. Suzanne and Lucy talked to one of your neighbors today, Mr. Kranowski. He had a lot to say about his relationship with Ridley. None of it good,” Dana added.
“He did? How did they manage to get him talking?”
Maggie helped herself to another bite of Out-of-Control Roll. A bit rich, but what the heck, it was Saturday night.
“Suzanne got an appointment there to appraise his property,” Dana continued. “They said he seemed lonely and had no qualms about speaking his mind.”
Ellie didn’t look surprised. “I know he hated Ridley. With a passion. Much more than Ben did. I can’t understand why the police never suspected him but jumped all over Ben.”
“After talking to him awhile, Suzanne and Lucy wondered the same thing. They even found a spindle under a chair. It could have just rolled under there . . . or been hidden. It’s one of the spindles you gave away at the fair,” Dana added.
Ellie was lifting a bite of food to her mouth but suddenly put it back down. “They did? Did they tell the police about it?”
“Suzanne took a photo, and Jack will help me put it in the right hands,” Dana replied. “Mr. Kranowski has a pretty good alibi, though. He suffers from gout and uses a walker. He must have told the police that on the night of the murder, he was home, incapacitated.”
“Gout can be very painful,” Maggie added. “A person really couldn’t sneak through the woods and kill someone in that condition.”
“He also has a story about how he obtained the spindle. But it does show the police that there was more than one person close by with motive, opportunity . . . and maybe even the means, if Kranowski is lying about his gout,” Dana quickly added.
“I see what you mean. It does help Ben.” Ellie let out a long breath and closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them again, she said, “I wish I could tell him. This would definitely make him feel better.”
“Has Ben been in touch at all since he left?” Dana’s tone was light but sympathetic.
Ellie looked down at her dish. “No, he hasn’t. I sent him a text, but he didn’t answer. I guess I could call and leave a message. But he should be calling me. And apologizing,” she added in an angrier voice.
“Are you worried about him?” Maggie asked her.
Ellie shrugged. “He’s a grown man. He can take care of himself. I just hope he doesn’t rack up too many bills on the credit cards.” It sounded to Maggie as if Ben had pulled this disappearing act before. But she didn’t feel comfortable asking.
“How did the fight start?” Dana chose two more pieces of sushi and put them on her plate. “You said it was about something the police found out about him? Something he never told you?”
Ellie nodded and sighed. “Ben is an independent type. He never liked having a boss and has always been in business for himself. I’ve always known that about him. It was a quality I found attractive, when we met.”
Maggie could understand that. After opening her shop, she doubted she could ever go back to a normal job again, answering to someone else’s rules.
“But?” Dana prodded her.
“But he hasn’t always been successful. He’s had some business failures and bad investments. And left some partners on bad terms. It isn’t as if he never told me but . . . he did leave out a few details.”
Dana and Maggie waited for Ellie to continue. When she didn’t, Dana prodded her. “Such as?”
“Let’s see . . . where should I start? He lost his Massachusetts license as a CPA. I didn’t know that. I thought he was still certified and could jump back into the field anytime. He also has some sort of judgment from a lawsuit pending in Florida. That had to do with a business breaking up. I think his partners are still trying to sue him for money they say he owes. The police say he’s been known under several other names . . . I can’t even remember them,” she confessed. “I was so upset, I just blanked out at that part. And he’d always told me that this was his second marriage. But it’s actually his third,” she added.
She sighed again and sat back in her chair, fiddling with her wineglass. Maggie sensed that revealing Ben’s dirty laundry was embarrassing for Ellie. She could understand that, but she thought her friend really needn’t feel that way.
“That is a lot to take in at once. And you had no idea of any of this?” Dana asked.
Ellie shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I felt so . . . betrayed. As if I married a stranger. Especially when I heard about the fake names. I felt as if I were some sort of colossal dummy or just hopelessly gullible. It’s so embarrassing.”
Ellie’s eyes were getting teary. Maggie didn’t want to see her cry but knew that there was no way to change the topic of conversation. Now that they had waded in
to this river, they had to swim through it.
Dana reached over and touched her hand. “Don’t blame yourself, Ellie. You did nothing wrong. He should have been honest with you. Did he deny these things were true?”
“No, he didn’t. He tried to explain things to me. But I was too angry to listen. I felt like I couldn’t believe anything he told me. It made me doubt myself, my own judgment in marrying him. Maybe we didn’t know each other long enough. Maybe I was just too eager to get married again. I think he knew that and knew how to say all the right things to win me over.”
Maggie’s heart went out to her. Ellie felt betrayed by the person closest to her in the whole world. No wonder she had trouble hearing out his explanations.
“How long did you know Ben before you got married? I don’t think you ever told me,” Dana said.
“About six months. That’s not very long, I know. But we told ourselves that we were mature, at a certain stage in life, and we knew what we wanted. We didn’t have to wait.”
Maggie could understand that. If she met someone and fell in love at this point in her life, she would feel the same way. “How did you meet?” Maggie asked.
Ellie glanced at her. She hesitated before answering. “An Internet dating site. HappilyEverAfter.com. They claim to have made the most matches that result in marriage.” She rolled her eyes. “I guess their questionnaire didn’t have a section for Ben to describe the shady side of his past.”
“I guess he could blame it on that,” Maggie said. “Did he explain why he hid all that from you?”
They were done with their dinner, and Ellie picked up the dishes and brought them to the sink. “He said he was afraid that he’d lose me. He thought I was so successful with my business without taking any shortcuts. He didn’t want me to think that he wasn’t at my level.”
Dana cocked her head to the side. “That sounds plausible.”
Maggie agreed. “It’s something a man might say.”
“He claims that he’s changed completely and he didn’t want me to judge him from his old, bad habits. He thought when we married it would be a fresh start for him and I would be a good role model.”
“What do you think now?” Dana asked quietly.
Ellie walked back to the table and wiped it off. “I think he was just trying to talk his way out of it by flattering me . . .” She sighed and hung her head a moment. “Honestly, I don’t know what to think. Obviously, he’s not the most forthright man in the world. He’s walked a fine line but never really broken the law. Even if he wasn’t the most scrupulous businessman, it still doesn’t mean he killed Justin Ridley. I think the police are just trying to scare him by throwing all this up in his face.”
Maggie could tell from her tone that she was mad at her husband and had even lost trust in him. But she still loved him and believed he was innocent. And that’s what really counted after all, wasn’t it?
Dana nodded thoughtfully. “I think you’re right. They can’t use any of this in court. They obviously don’t have any concrete evidence linking Ben to Ridley’s murder, or you would have heard about it by now.”
Dana’s reply was not entirely reassuring. Maggie almost heard the words she’d left out: “. . . or they would have arrested him by now.”
Ellie must have heard the words, too. “This can’t go to court, Dana. I don’t think I could stand it. I don’t think our marriage could hold up under that pressure.”
Ellie started crying and covered her face with her hands. Maggie felt so bad for her. She didn’t know what to say.
Dana stood up and put her arm around Ellie’s shoulder. “Ellie, please don’t cry. You’re under so much stress right now. It’s hard to keep things in perspective.”
“I know but . . . it wasn’t smart of Ben to just take off like that. The police told him not to leave town without telling them. What if he’s so scared that he does something stupid, like drive up to Canada and cross the border? He may never be able to come back,” she said, launching into a fresh bout of sobs.
“Did he tell you that he might do that?” Dana was trying hard to hide the note of alarm in her voice, Maggie thought, but she was not entirely successful.
Ellie nodded sadly. “He did, when we were arguing. He was angry and tired of being questioned and accused. It was just an offhand remark. Almost a threat, I thought. Now I’m really worried.”
Maggie didn’t blame her. A desperate act like that was practically an admission of guilt. The police would think so, anyway.
Dana spoke quietly and tried to catch Ellie’s glance. “He was probably just blowing off steam. Let’s hope he has more sense than that.”
Ellie nodded. She wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and seemed a bit calmer. “I have a nice pie for dessert. Let me get it.” She walked over to the sideboard and carried a very pretty pie with a golden lattice crust back to the table.
“Dot made this pie,” Ellie said as she set it on the table. “She brought it over this afternoon. After Ben left. She said she’d found a few apples hiding out in the branches, trying not to get picked. These were the really clever ones.” The description made Ellie smile—for maybe the first time that evening, Maggie realized. “I promised to save her a piece. She won’t be back until tomorrow morning. Anyone want coffee or tea?”
Maggie and Dana both wanted tea, and Ellie went over to the sink to fill a kettle.
“We saw Dot when we got here,” Dana said. “She’s a home health aide someplace?”
“She works for a woman who lives nearby, Elizabeth Foley. She’s an invalid, with multiple sclerosis. A few other aides come and go. Dot isn’t her only help, but she seems to be Mrs. Foley’s favorite. Dot works there about ten or twelve hours a week. It depends on Mrs. Foley’s condition and how much she needs her.”
Ellie set the kettle on the stove and turned on the gas burner, then opened a cupboard and took out three dishes and mugs.
“Dot has a lot of energy for a woman her age, doesn’t she?” Dana said.
“Oh, she’s remarkable. I don’t know what we would have done without her. When we bought the place, we ran an ad to rent the cottage, but we also needed some help with the animals and running the orchard. Especially during the picking season. Dot couldn’t really afford the rent we were asking, but she’s lived on farms her whole life, so it all fell into place.”
“That was lucky,” Maggie remarked.
“She’s been a good friend. In her quiet way,” Ellie said. “I know she’s aware of all the tension between me and Ben. But she doesn’t judge. She’s been very sympathetic, a real support.” Ellie sighed. “I’m sure she’s wondering if we’re going to really stay here, after all. But she hasn’t asked yet.”
“If you’re going to stay?” Dana looked up at Ellie. Maggie felt surprised by the comment, too. “Are you and Ben talking about selling the farm?”
Ellie took a creamer and sugar bowl out of the cupboard. She glanced at Dana, then focused back on her task. “That was part of the argument, too. I hate to say it, but in the last few days, it seems as if all this hard work, all the time and money we’ve spent trying to get this business going . . . it’s all been for nothing. A colossal waste of time. Ben is so unhappy. He says this whole situation has soured him on this place, on the farm . . . on everything.”
Maggie felt very bad hearing that, though in a way, she was not surprised. “I’m sure he feels that way now,” she said to Ellie. “But he might feel differently when the police find Ridley’s murderer and his name is cleared.”
Ellie seemed lost in thought for a moment, then looked over at her friends again. “I don’t think so. He sounds very definite. He says the people around here just don’t want to accept us. We’re just not welcome and they’ll always make life difficult for us, one way or the other.”
Maggie didn’t know what to say to that. Dana didn’t seem to, either. Maggie thought Ben was right, in a way. Some circles of Plum Harbor, like this farming community, were made up of tightly kni
t families who had lived here for generations, closed to outsiders. After ten or even fifteen years, the Kruegers might still be considered “newcomers.”
On top of that were all the rumors and gossip about Ridley’s death. That was a potent combination that could drive even the most committed newcomer into retreat.
Maggie knew from firsthand experience that once you were smeared with such serious accusations—even if you were totally innocent—it was hard to shake it off and move on. It was hard to live it down.
Finally Dana spoke. “Even with Ridley gone, he still thinks you’ll be bothered?”
Ellie nodded bleakly. “He’s convinced now it wasn’t just Ridley. He thinks the rest of that group will keep bothering us until we go. Unless the police can catch them, I guess. But they’re so busy trying to prove a case against Ben, I don’t think they’ve followed up at all on our complaints.”
The teakettle whistled shrilly, and Ellie stepped back over to the stove. Maggie was about to say something when suddenly they heard another shrill alarm. Coming from outdoors, somewhere behind the house.
Ellie quickly shut off the burner and ran to the window over the sink, which faced the barn and the pasture.
“It’s one of the alarms out back. Either the corral or the barn. I have to go check.” She turned to them, her skin white as paper. “Will you come with me?”
Maggie jumped up from her chair, and so did Dana.
“Of course we will,” Dana said quickly. They followed Ellie to the mudroom and grabbed their jackets off the coat hooks. There was a boot bench below and a shelf above, with cubbyholes that were jammed with needful things for farm life—garden gloves and cans of insect repellent.
“We’d better grab some flashlights. Do you have any handy?” Dana asked.
“I have a bunch in one of these baskets . . .” Ellie reached around to find the flashlights.
And not a moment too soon. The light in the mudroom flickered and suddenly went out.
The lights had gone out all over the house, Maggie realized, and outside, too.
