Till Death Do Us Purl

by Anne Canadeo

  “Yes, we did. In the same lab. But I think you already know that Mrs. Messina.”

  Maggie felt her stomach clutch. “I do? How would I?”

  “I noticed you there, too. Now that you mention it. You’re friends with his wife, Rebecca, and her mother, right?” Erica asked bluntly.

  Maggie had talked to Rebecca and Nora for a long time when she came in. Erica did not take her seat until much later. But maybe she was standing somewhere in the room, talking to coworkers, with her eyes on Rebecca, of course.

  “I think you must be the one who helped her knit her gown. I heard all about that. How creative and craftsy she is. A craftsy little cow.”

  “You did? Where did you hear all that?” Now it was Maggie’s turn to be surprised.

  “At work, in the employee lounge, of course. Jeremy’s wedding was an endless topic of conversation for some people. You’d think he was part of the royal family.”

  Maggie didn’t doubt it. Employees in a family-owned company loved to gossip about the company owners. How that wedding talk must have galled and humiliated Erica. Everyone must have known she’d been tossed aside for Rebecca.

  Why did she ever stay at the company? To stay close to Jeremy? She must have loved him very much.

  “You know, I had to talk to the police. But I really don’t have to talk to you.”

  “No, you don’t. That’s true,” Maggie admitted, feeling sheepish.

  “Is that what this is all about? Some silly . . . trick to lure me here?” Erica looked genuinely angry now. Maggie wasn’t frightened. Though she did slip a pair of sharp scissors off the counter and into her skirt pocket.

  “You don’t have to speak to me about Jeremy. About any of this,” Maggie admitted without answering the question. “I’m just trying to help Rebecca. The police are hounding her. I’m afraid they suspect her. I’m just trying to help her out a bit. Whatever else you might say about her, she’s not capable of murder. Especially murdering Jeremy.”

  Erica’s eyes narrowed. “Then you don’t really know her at all, Mrs. Messina. If you can stand here and say that. She’s capable of a lot of things. She stole Jeremy from me. We’d been together for more than two years and talked about getting married, until she came along. Did you know that?”

  Maggie did know that. But in the version Alec and Claudia had related—which she’d learned by eavesdropping—Erica had not been painted as the sympathetic party. More like a spider, wrapping up her prey and sucking it dry.

  What had Alec said? The best thing Jeremy ever did for himself was to get out of Erica’s clutches.

  “I think I did hear that you and Jeremy had been in a relationship, before he met Rebecca,” Maggie conceded.

  “She acts all innocent and sweet. But she’s a ruthless, coldhearted witch. A total phony. Those outfits she wears. She always looks like she’s about to churn butter. What did Jeremy ever see in her? I couldn’t get it.”

  Erica still sounded angry and stung. Remarkable, Maggie thought, all things considered. Erica stared at Maggie, as if expecting some explanation. Maggie didn’t say a word.

  “Do you really want to know why I never want to learn how to knit?” Erica asked. “Why I can’t even stand looking at this stuff? Because it reminds me of her. All those ugly sweaters and scarves she made for him. He used to wear them to work, a new one every day. It made me sick just to look at them.” Erica visibly shuddered. Then pulled herself under control just as quickly.

  Erica truly despised Rebecca. Maggie had rarely seen such pure hatred up close and personal. Who knew what she’d told the police in her interview, if this was a taste of it. No wonder they were looking so closely at Rebecca as a suspect.

  “Do you really think she killed Jeremy, Erica? Or do you just wish she’d be punished for what she did to you?”

  Erica sighed and shook her head, her glossy locks tumbling about like a shampoo commercial. “Yes, I do believe she could have done it,” she said. “But probably on impulse. She’s too dumb to plan anything more complicated than a bowl of hot cereal. Sweet little do-gooder Rebecca. Running around, making the world a sunnier place with her scrapbooking and volunteer work. How long was it going to take for him to get bored with that? Maybe he was bored with it already and she realized he wasn’t going to take her with him . . . wherever he planned on going.”

  While Maggie had pictured Erica in that scenario with Jeremy, reacting badly to that news, she had never pictured Rebecca in that role. Interesting, she thought.

  It certainly was possible, Maggie had to concede. But she quickly brushed the image aside. Even if Jeremy was trying to jilt Rebecca, she would never have reacted by killing him.

  She wasn’t so sure now about Dr. Ferris.

  “Is that what you think happened? You were the woman close to him, for a long time. A woman at his intellectual level,” Maggie added, purposely pouring on the flattery. “Rebecca says she didn’t understand his work at all. She doesn’t have a clue. Burning his lab, faking his death, that was a pretty desperate act. What do you think he was trying to accomplish?”

  Erica’s full lips closed in a tight line. “I really don’t know. I moved to a different department after he hooked up with Rebecca.”

  “But you were close to him before that. He trusted you. You were one of very few, I’d imagine,” she added, playing to Erica’s ego again. “You must have some special insight into him.”

  Erica didn’t answer at first, but finally, the flattery seemed to move her. “I was close to him. He did confide in me. Mainly about his father. Jeremy was always very angry with Philip. Maybe he was just trying to get back at his father, burning the place down and disappearing at the eleventh hour. Maybe it was his way of getting revenge for being controlled by the old man for so long. The lab was in trouble. The investors were very restless. They wanted to see some results. And you know that Lewis Atkins was working on this same formula, right?”

  “Yes, I’d heard that.” Maggie nodded. She really wanted to bring Lewis Atkins here next. Though she doubted that raffle trick would work on him.

  She looked back at Erica, who had buttoned her red coat and was tugging on her leather gloves. Very nice gloves, Maggie noticed. They wouldn’t have left any trace in a motel room. Or on a woolen scarf.

  Maggie could tell her time with Erica had come to an end. She tried for one last question.

  “So, how did you feel when you heard the news that Jeremy was found in the motel? It must have been a great shock.”

  Erica laughed. “You’re not very subtle, Mrs. Messina. The police were far more direct. You really want to know where I was when he was killed, right? I worked late that night at the lab. The fire didn’t only affect his project, it set everyone back. It’s all on the security cameras, my coming and going. The time and date, the works.”

  Erica shrugged, holding her gloved hands out in the air for a moment. “Claudia Lassiter called me at home very early Wednesday morning. Right after the police told his family. She thought I should hear the news personally, before I came to work.”

  “That’s was thoughtful of her.” Maggie was surprised, considering the way Claudia had spoken about Erica.

  “I think she just didn’t want me to make a scene. The Lassiters hate emotional displays.” She paused and tugged on her gloves again. “It wasn’t fair the way Jeremy died. The way his father made him waste his life on glue. It makes me very angry.”

  “No, it wasn’t fair at all. None of it,” Maggie agreed.

  It was clear that Erica loved him and truly grieved. No matter what else you wanted to say about her. Maggie could see that.

  Erica picked up her purse and turned to leave the shop. “That’s all I can tell you. I have to go.”

  “Wait . . . don’t forgot this.” Maggie ran out from behind the counter, carrying the knitting tote. She held it out. “I want you to have it. Honestly. Give it away to someone if you don’t want to keep it.”

  Erica finally took her prize. “M
y sister-in-law’s birthday is coming up. I guess it will come in handy.”

  “You were here all alone with that woman? You took a big chance, I’m very upset with you.” Suzanne made her scolding-mom face.

  Maggie tried to look contrite but was secretly laughing. It was Saturday, nearly noon, and she had just finished relating her conversation with Erica to her friends. She’d sent a quick, early-morning e-mail, reporting that she’d lured Erica to the shop. They all wrote back that they’d drop what they were doing to meet at the shop and hear more about it. Claiming they had planned to come by anyway, for one reason or another.

  Maggie quickly related the conversation she’d had with Jeremy’s old flame. But now she had to endure their rebukes. Which she hoped wouldn’t go on too long. She was rolling balls of yarn off her knitting swift and paused to slip on another skein.

  “It wasn’t a huge chance. But still. She is an unknown quantity,” Dana agreed.

  Phoebe just gave her a look. “Dumb move,” she mouthed silently.

  “My money would be on Maggie in that matchup,” Lucy finally said. “So, do you think she did it? Sounds like she has a good alibi, with her coming and going at the lab documented by the building’s security system.”

  “It’s almost too good. A clever mouse has many holes,” Maggie said quietly.

  “I think the exact quote is ‘A mouse does not rely on just one hole,’” Dana corrected. “But the clever ones know how to use them to advantage. Security videotape and clocks can be tampered with and she’s worked at the lab for years. There must be ways in and out of the building that bypass the cameras. Jack says the police have figured out that Jeremy must have known how to do it. That’s how he snuck a cadaver in to fake his death.”

  Phoebe made a face. “Where does a nice guy like Jeremy grab one of those anyway?”

  “Simple. Jeremy swiped his from the medical school,” Dana explained. “He taught a chem course there, so he was able to get in and out easily and knew his way around the building. It probably wasn’t too difficult, once he had it planned.”

  “He was extremely intelligent. So is Erica. They were at the same intellectual level. She made sure to point that out to me. A few times,” Maggie said.

  “Did you ask if she visited him at the motel?” said Phoebe.

  Before Maggie could answer, Dana jumped in. “Jack says the motel clerk told the police he saw a female visitor the night before Jeremy was found dead. But the clerk described someone who fits Rebecca’s description, with long fair hair, a bit taller than average. So we were correct in guessing that the police think Rebecca returned and left Jeremy dead.”

  “Somebody did. But I know it wasn’t Rebecca,” Maggie loyally maintained. “But I didn’t ask Erica if she went there. I didn’t bother. She wouldn’t have told me the truth.”

  “Do you really think Jeremy would have called both Erica and Rebecca?” Suzanne seemed shocked by the idea. “He struck me as the loyal type.”

  “I don’t think we can assume any high moral standards from a man who faked his own death,” Dana reminded them. “He may have needed some special favor from Erica before he left the country. Maybe he needed something from the lab and knew it would be hard for her to refuse helping him?”

  “Yeah, come to think of it, you’re probably right.” Suzanne nodded her head. “He knew that Erica would have been thrilled to hear he was alive, and sounds like Erica would have definitely taken a bullet for him.”

  “Or put a bullet in him. Depending on her mood.” Maggie gazed around at her friends.

  “Or strangle him from behind with his own scarf,” Phoebe said, feigning a horrified chill.

  “A scarf Rebecca had made for him, don’t forget. Erica was adamant about how much she despised seeing Jeremy wear Rebecca’s hand-knit gifts,” Maggie reminded the others.

  “Knitting rubbed in her wound?” Suzanne asked.

  “Exactly.”

  The skein of yarn Maggie had been rolling came to an end and the little machine, now empty, kept whirring.

  The women were quiet for a moment. Maggie put another skein on the swift and started to roll again.

  “Lovely Erica may well have her secrets,” Dana said. “But let’s say she didn’t do it. Who could it be otherwise? Who’s left?”

  “A long list. Which is probably good for Rebecca,” Maggie said on an upbeat note.

  Dana turned her knitting over and stopped to contemplate the question. “As far as possible female visitors, there’s his sister, Claudia, and his mother, Patricia. He might have called one or both of them to let them know he was alive. And there’s his stepmother, Sonia. But she seems the most distant and least likely to be in his confidence. She’s also an ally of his father, the very person he was trying to escape.”

  “I think we cross Philip Lassiter off the phone call list. I’m sure Jeremy didn’t get in touch to tell his dad he was alive and kicking,” Suzanne said.

  “True . . . but he might have called his brother, Alec?” Lucy looked up from her work, the idea just coming to her. “Jeremy showed a lot of loyalty to his brother at the wedding. He even crossed their father in order to have Alec stand up for him as the best man. And Alec is an outsider to the family circle. Jeremy may have felt safe contacting him.”

  “Good point, Lucy.” Dana nodded. “I’ve been thinking about the way Jeremy faked his death, from a psychological point of view. It is a common fantasy. People do wonder how their loved ones and other social connections would react once they’re gone.”

  “I do all the time. Whenever I get really pissed about how Josh doesn’t appreciate me. Or how hard I work for his band,” Phoebe admitted. “In my fantasy, he’s on stage in a solo spotlight, weeping a little, saying, ‘This one is for Phoebe. The greatest girlfriend who ever lived . . .’ Or he’s dedicating an entire concert to me. Oh, and there’s a really good photo of me up on big screens next to the stage. A real glam shot—”

  “Thank you, dear. I think we get the idea,” Maggie interrupted. “Although, lifting the veil on your secret life this way does make me a little concerned.”

  Dana laughed. “I think you might say the same if we all had a turn confessing our fantasies, Mag. But that’s just what I mean. We know that all the pressure to produce and save the family was on Jeremy. He must have felt resentful and underappreciated. I’m starting to think that he enjoyed watching the way his family reacted to his fake death. And was tempted to reach out to a few people in his life and let them know he survived. Not just Rebecca. Maybe Alec, too.”

  “Well . . . do we think Alec is a good twin . . . or an evil twin?” Phoebe peered around the circle pushing back a lock of her long dark hair. Maggie still wasn’t used to the yellow streak. Phoebe had recently changed it, from her usual magenta. Which Maggie thought was more becoming . . . in some odd away.

  “Does he have to be one or the other?” Lucy asked with a laugh.

  “Identical twins are always one or the other. In daytime dramas and the movies,” Suzanne said quickly.

  “It’s a bit more complicated in real life,” Dana said. “But I’d say the Lassiters have all the necessary dysfunction to produce that classic combination.”

  “What do the police say, Dana? Has Jack heard anything about more visitors or phone calls? Or visits to the motel by Alec?” Lucy asked.

  “Nothing more so far. Except for Rebecca going there. Which she admits, too,” Dana replied.

  “And which has her in a lot of hot water if they can’t find evidence of anyone else visiting him there,” Maggie added in a rushed, worried tone.

  “Jeremy was very smart. He knew how to cover his tracks,” Dana continued. “He purposely left his iPhone in the fire, along with his wallet and wedding band and many personal belongings, in the pockets of the stolen cadaver, to prove his demise. Then he bought a prepaid phone to use at the motel. The police found only Rebecca’s number on that. But it doesn’t mean he didn’t contact other people with other means that are
harder to trace. The police are still checking all the pay phones in the area, library computers, and other venues.”

  “Wow, that could take months,” Phoebe said.

  “It could,” Dana agreed. “Hopefully, they’ll get lucky. Unfortunately, there were no security cameras at the motel. Did I already mention that? The police only have the accounts of three different desk clerks who had shifts while Jeremy stayed there. And of course, they weren’t watching the parking lot every minute.”

  “More like watching a mini-TV tucked in their office space somewhere,” Suzanne said. “Or napping.”

  “Exactly. There were some other guests and employees of the motel. But they didn’t have much to say. It was definitely the type of place where people come and go anonymously. And that’s pretty much all the desk clerks saw—Jeremy, coming and going. Carrying bags from the 7-Eleven next door. Wearing low caps and sunglasses.”

  “And, most likely, the scarf Rebecca had made for him,” Lucy added. “Sounds like he rarely took it off.”

  “Sounds like he slept in it,” Suzanne added.

  “Sounds sort of kinky—” Phoebe said.

  “Enough said,” Maggie cut in, calling a halt to that line of speculation.

  “Hey, this sounds really obvious, but don’t the police realize that when these desk clerks saw Jeremy coming and going it could have been Alec?” Lucy pondered aloud. “Jeremy was so smart, he may have even told his brother to wear an identical getup, something simple like a baseball cap and a dark-colored jacket?”

  “His sister, Claudia, said that they used to trick the family, trading identities. That was one of the stories she told at the memorial service,” Suzanne recalled.

  “A common prank for twins in childhood. Not so common for adults,” Dana remarked. “But in this situation, it would have definitely come in handy.”

  “It would have,” Maggie said thoughtfully. “Alec may have been there several times, flying under the radar. Are the police looking into that line of investigation at all?” she asked Dana.

  “If they are, Jack hasn’t heard about it.” Dana glanced at her. “I will ask him. He doesn’t hear every little nuance. Just the high points.”