Let's Play Dead

by Sheila Connolly

  And what was taking Nolan so long? The basement couldn’t be all that big. I thought I could hear some banging around below my feet.

  It was time to get to the point. “Hadley, let me see if I’ve got this right,” I said. “You brought the head you chose back to the museum two weeks ago, and the installers attached it. Jason says they tried it out and everything was working fine.”

  “I don’t remember what day it was. That’s why I have an assistant, to keep track of things like that.”

  Caitlin, who I thought had shown remarkable restraint through Hadley’s story, spoke for the first time in a while. “Tuesday, definitely. The installers attached the head in the morning, and we tested it. Then you came by at about one to check it out.”

  “If you say so,” Hadley said. “I don’t remember.”

  “Arabella, you invited me over on Tuesday afternoon,” I said, picking up the thread. “That’s when Jason was hurt. So if someone did something to the installation, it had to have happened between Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon.

  “My memory’s still kind of shaky,” Jason said, “but I remember it worked fine the first time we tried it.”

  Jason’s accident had looked convincing enough, and I’d seen it up close. Maybe it was possible he could have rigged it to limit the damage, and then used himself as a test dummy, but why on earth would he do such a thing? But who had the expertise to do it? Arabella had been married to an electrician; had she paid attention to the details of wiring? As for confirming Hadley’s whereabouts, I had an idea.

  “Hadley, do you keep a calendar?”

  She sniffed. “My assistant does. I have no idea where.”

  “Would Chloe know what your schedule was that week?”

  “Probably. But she’s gone.”

  “I know where to find her.” Hadley and I locked eyes, and I thought I saw fear in hers. “Did you provide her with a computer or some other device to keep track of things for you?”

  “No. She had her own. She never asked for one.”

  Probably because she knew that Hadley wouldn’t spring for one. “So you personally don’t recall where you might have been Tuesday afternoon?”

  “I told you, she was at the museum Tuesday after lunch,” Caitlin said. “She wanted to make sure we hadn’t screwed up attaching the new head.”

  “All right!” Hadley all but shouted. “I was at the museum. But so were Arabella and Caitlin and Jason and God knows how many other people. Any one of them could have tampered with the exhibit.”

  That was true enough, although I wasn’t sure who else would have a motive. But there was one more piece: Joe had died on Wednesday. “Arabella, you had the wiring for the new head checked on Wednesday, the day after Jason was hurt. I assume you tested it again?”

  “Of course we did. One accident was more than enough, and I wasn’t going to take any chances. Caitlin and I were both there. It was working fine. I even called in an outside electrician to check things out-I paid for that out of my own pocket.”

  “Hadley, where were you on Wednesday?”

  Hadley looked victorious. “I had a signing out in Chester County. I worked from home in the morning, then Chloe drove me to the bookstore there. We were there for a couple of hours-with plenty of witnesses.”

  “And after that?” I pressed.

  “Chloe brought me home. I fixed supper and went to bed.”

  “Alone?”

  “Yes, alone! Then some reporter called around eleven that evening to say that someone had been killed at my exhibit, and what did I have to say? That must be on record somewhere-I was quoted in the paper, you know.”

  Score one point for Hadley. If she had sneaked into the museum after hours to mess with the exhibit, she’d have had a rather narrow window of opportunity between the closing time for the museum and nine o’clock when Joe died. Which made things look worse for Caitlin. When had Jason come home from the hospital? Had they been together Wednesday night?

  It wasn’t easy to try to sort out any kind of time line while keeping up with the conversation going on in front of me. Joe had died on Wednesday, but Hadley hadn’t fired Chloe immediately. Of course, it had taken the police some time to put together the pieces and arrive at Hadley’s door, and from there to Chloe. After Chloe had talked to them and spilled some of Hadley’s dirty little secrets, Hadley had dumped her fast, and Chloe had come running to Eric for sympathy. Last week. Why had Hadley bothered to fire her? Surely she should have known that Chloe had no choice but to talk to the police. Was it just Hadley acting out of pique, which was apparently her normal operating procedure, or did she think that Chloe had pointed the police toward Hadley, deliberately or unintentionally? Did Hadley’s sliding book sales give her a real motive?

  Apparently Hadley sensed my hesitation, because she launched into attack mode. “Excuse me, Nell, but who the hell appointed you investigator here? I’ve talked to the police about the events at Let’s Play, told them everything I’ve told you, and they seem satisfied. My reputation is on the line as much as anyone’s. And nobody has shown that I had a clue about what happened, or if I had even wanted to do something like that, how I could have. I have trouble programming my cell phone. Do you seriously think I could rig the wiring in the exhibit? And how was I supposed to set a death trap when I was miles away? Why aren’t you looking at Caitlin-she’s been part of this from the beginning. Maybe she thought she’d failed at her job and was trying to destroy the exhibit before it even opened. Maybe she has a lifelong beef with her mother. I don’t know-but I do know that I’ve had enough of this discussion. I’d like you to leave now.”

  Nolan appeared in the doorway from the hall, holding a flashlight. He looked a bit absurd with a Willy head tucked under each arm, but his expression was far from amusing-or amused. “You’ve had some electrical work done recently, haven’t you?”

  Startled, Hadley turned to confront him. “Yes, I have. So what?”

  “Because, lady, you have a serious problem.”

  CHAPTER 31

  “What do you mean?” Hadley demanded.

  “Whoever did your wiring-the most recent stuff-was an incompetent hack. You’re lucky the place hasn’t gone up in flames.”

  “Why?”

  “Jaysus, aluminum wiring alongside knob-and-tube, junction boxes hacked to bits and shredding the wires. How long ago was this done?”

  “Just a few weeks ago. What’s wrong with it?“

  “This place was built, what, in the twenties? That old knob-and-tube stuff-it’s not bad, so long as you don’t mess with it. In fact, looks like no one did until recently. Of course, you’re seriously underpowered by current standards, but if it’s just you and you don’t run too many appliances at once, you’d get by. I take it you didn’t fix it yourself?”

  “The old wiring? Of course not!”

  Nolan grinned. “Didn’t think so. So you hired someone. Where’d you find this yahoo?”

  “I… don’t remember. Someone recommended him, I think.”

  I noticed that Hadley wasn’t meeting anyone’s eyes, and then I recalled Chloe’s comments about Hadley’s blue-collar boy toys. “Was this an electrician friend? A rather close friend?”

  “What do you mean?”

  I was getting increasingly tired of her evasions. “A boyfriend. Were you dating any electricians?”

  Her expression changed then. “Yes,” she whispered.

  And then the penny dropped. “Was it Joe Murphy?”

  Hadley nodded.

  We all sat in stunned silence for a moment. My brain was in overdrive. Joe had dated Hadley. Joe had worked on Hadley’s house while the Willy heads were in the basement. Joe was apparently a lousy electrician, if Nolan was right. And Joe had been electrocuted while working on the exhibit at Let’s Play. But how to connect the dots?

  “Okay, Hadley, can you walk us through this? When were you and Joe… together?”

  “I don’t want to talk about this,” Hadley said in a
tight voice.

  Too bad. “Hadley, I’m afraid you have to. Did you mention to the police that you and the victim had had a relationship?”

  Hadley shook her head like a sulky child. “I didn’t see what difference it would make. It was over by then anyway.”

  Apparently Hadley was missing a few screws. She didn’t realize that the police might like to know that she had been intimately involved with the dead man? But in Hadley World, Hadley’s interests came first. “When did your relationship end?”

  “Last month.”

  “How long were you together?”

  “A few weeks, maybe?”

  “And how many relationships have you had with, uh, other people, say over the last year?”

  “A few. Five, maybe?” Hadley contemplated her mantelpiece, avoiding my gaze.

  Chloe had been right. A rapid turnover of well-muscled and not-too-bright boyfriends was not what people wanted to hear about a children’s book writer, so maybe it wasn’t surprising that Hadley had kept it quiet. I tried another tack. “When did you bring the Willy heads home?”

  Now she turned back to look at me. “You mean, were Joe and I seeing each other then? Yes. They were here while I was seeing Joe.”

  “But you two broke it off before you took the final head back to the museum.”

  “Yes, it was over by then.”

  “How did he take the breakup?”

  “He was angry. I don’t know why-I never promised him anything. He couldn’t have thought we had any future together. I mean, look at me-look at who I am. He was just an electrician. It wasn’t serious.”

  “So you used him for some quick sex and then dumped him,” I said bluntly.

  “You don’t need to be crude, Nell,” she replied. I noticed she didn’t deny the allegation.

  “Did he show you how the Willy heads worked?”

  “No. I didn’t really care, as long as they worked correctly. He was helping me with them. He would show me how fast Willy could speak, that kind of thing. He wanted to be sure they would stand up to heavy handling-kids can be kind of rough, you know. But I didn’t want the final one to be too scary.”

  I turned to Nolan, who had set the two remaining heads down on the floor at his feet. “Nolan, can you take a look at those and tell me if they’re wired correctly?”

  “Piece of cake.” He picked up the first one and peered inside. We all waited silently while Nolan poked and prodded inside the two heads. Finally he said, “They seem fine to me. It’s a pretty simple circuit. I’m not up on all the fancy electronics like the recorded voice bit, but the connections inside look right. Can’t speak as to how they went on the body.”

  That was good to know, especially since Hadley had sent Joe packing before she had delivered the head to Let’s Play. “Did Joe know which head you had chosen, Hadley?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so. I really didn’t make up my mind until the last minute. Arabella was being so pushy about it, so in the end I just grabbed one.”

  I could hear Caitlin laugh briefly.

  “Hadley, you’d had months to make up your mind,” Arabella said, clearly exasperated. Then she turned to me. “Nell, where are you going with this?”

  “I’m trying to figure out who rigged the Willy model in the exhibit. And why. Hadley, was this all just a big publicity stunt to get your name in the papers?”

  Hadley jumped out of her chair. “No! Look, I know you think I’m shallow and self-centered, and maybe I am, but I would never put anyone at risk.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe you didn’t think anyone would die, just get a nasty shock. Which Jason did. And maybe you were disappointed when that didn’t get any publicity and decided to up the ante the second time around. Maybe you’d already planned your tearful press conference.”

  “Nell!” Arabella burst out. “That’s not fair.”

  I swung back to her. “Look, Arabella, if we don’t get to the bottom of this, your museum is in deep trouble. You want me to be nice and polite under the circumstances? Hadley had motive and opportunity-and I gather she doesn’t like you or Caitlin much. Why shouldn’t she be a suspect? If she could pin this on you or Caitlin, she’d come out smelling like a rose.”

  Hadley was standing rigidly, her fists clenched, and the tears were spilling down her cheeks now. “I swear, I didn’t do this. I may be a lousy person, but I wouldn’t kill anyone. Believe me, Harriet isn’t worth it. You think I don’t know she’s past her prime? Just like me? Sales are down, and so’s my income, and that’s all I’ve got. Sure, I’ve thought about how I could use this to my advantage for publicity, but when Joe died, I just couldn’t.”

  Did I believe her? I decided I did. She was right-she was shallow. But I couldn’t really see her as a cold-blooded killer. I looked around at our little group. “Then what happened?”

  I was surprised when Nolan was the first to speak. “Have you thought that it might have been Joe’s own doing?”

  That was the last thing I expected to hear. “What, he killed himself in a very public way because Hadley rejected him?”

  “Nah, nothing so fancy as that. But the lady had hurt his pride by dumping him, right? Maybe he figured messing with Hadley’s exhibit was a good way of getting back at her. And maybe he screwed up the wiring himself and paid the price. After what I’ve seen downstairs, it wouldn’t surprise me. The man took far too many shortcuts. Sloppy work.”

  “And of course he had access to the figures at Let’s Play,” Arabella added slowly, “since he was part of the installation crew.”

  “That’s how I met him,” Hadley said softly. Then, recovering her more imperious tone, she continued. “So let me get this straight. You’re saying you think that he might have rigged Willy’s head to get back at me?”

  “I think so,” I replied. “Jason received a jolt. That incident never went public, so it didn’t get the result Joe wanted-he probably didn’t want anyone to die, but he hoped that someone would get hurt badly enough that it would make the news. His first attempt went wrong, but then he had to wait all day Wednesday. He or one of his buddies repaired the wiring, and Arabella had it checked out, twice, and then he went back and changed it back again, only this time something went wrong. He didn’t have much time, and he was probably working in the dark so no one could see him. Does that make sense?” I looked around at the group. “Nolan?”

  “Could be,” Nolan said. “I’d have to see the wiring in that head to be sure. I assume the cops have it?”

  Arabella nodded. “They do.”

  “Then we should give them the other two, for comparison.”

  “Of course,” Hadley said. “Just make sure they’re back in time for the opening.”

  The gall of the statement rendered me speechless. Caitlin, who had been silent through this discussion, finally spoke. “So I was right-you were responsible, just not quite directly. But you were willing to let the police suspect me, and my mother, and Let’s Play, rather than come forward and tell them the whole story, just because it made you look bad. What did we ever do to you?” I noticed that Jason had drifted closer to Caitlin, and he now had his arm around her.

  “It wasn’t personal.”

  “How lame is that?” Caitlin burst out. “You were thinking, Sorry, but I’ll take any likely candidate for killer, as long as it isn’t me?” She turned to Arabella. “Is it too late the pull the plug on that damned exhibit? Because right now it would feel really good to take a sledgehammer to the whole thing.”

  Arabella actually smiled. “Sweetie, I understand how you feel, believe me. But we’re only a couple of weeks from opening, and we simply can’t afford to have a huge hole in our scheduling right now. Nell, what do we do now?”

  Nell Pratt, resident expert on law enforcement. I sighed. “We tell the Philadelphia Police what we know, and we give them the other two heads and tell them to compare them to the one they have. We tell them we believe that Joe may have been responsible for the faulty wiring, and he was s
tupid enough to electrocute himself. It’s sad, but there’s a weird sort of poetic justice to it.”

  “Will they believe that, Nell?” Arabella asked.

  “I don’t know. It makes as much sense as anything else, and I’m sure they’d be happy to close the case. If you’re lucky, there’ll be some evidence, if they know what to look for. And if you’re very lucky, you, the museum, Caitlin, and Hadley will be exonerated, and the exhibit goes on as planned. Hadley, you’re going to have to repeat what you’ve told us to the police, but I doubt that it will go public-unless you decide you really want that kind of publicity.”

  “I think not,” Hadley said. “I’d like to come out of this with some shred of dignity. We’ll just call it a tragic accident, due to an electrician’s error, and he’s already paid the price. Is that acceptable to you, Arabella?”

  “I agree that would be best, Hadley.”

  “I don’t suppose we can do this in time for tomorrow’s paper?” Hadley said.

  The woman was a piece of work. “Unlikely,” I said. “Besides, we-or Arabella and you-need to talk to the police before you call the news folks.”

  “All right,” a subdued Hadley replied.

  I needed to clear my head. Had we really figured out what had happened-and come up with a noncrime? I took a candle and walked into the hall and pulled open the door a crack to check the weather. I had expected to see ice. What I hadn’t expected to see was the massive tree trunk that spanned the road we had arrived by, and a few sparking wires that it had brought down with it.

  “Uh, guys?” I called over my shoulder. “I don’t think we’re going anywhere tonight.”

  CHAPTER 32

  Why was I not surprised that Hadley gave a small shriek from what sounded like pure frustration? But it was pitch black; the entire neighborhood was dark. I turned and made my way back to the living room. Luckily Nolan had held on to the flashlight he had been using.

  “Tree down?” he asked.

  “Big one, across the road. I guess we’re stuck.”