A Death In Tuscany (Sarah Woods Mystery Book 13)

by Jennifer L. Jennings

“How could you possibly know that?” Jamie asked. “Who told you?”

  “Because I overheard Eduardo talking about it to someone on the phone this morning. He obviously has no idea I speak fluent Italian. I understood every word of his conversation.”

  Carter grabbed a chair and sat down directly across from Hope. “What did he say?”

  “Well, I don’t know who he was talking to, but he said that one of his guests had found a gold nugget on his property. He said the man showed it to him and wanted to know what it was worth. Eduardo estimated only two hundred bucks, but the man thought it was worth much more. Then—this is the chilling part—Eduardo actually chuckled when he mentioned the fact that this man drowned while he was trying to find more gold in his river. He thought it was funny. Like Dick had it coming.”

  Everyone remained quiet, as if we all were trying to understand the ramifications of her statement.

  “I just came from the hot springs,” I said. “A bunch of kids are down there panning for gold. I wonder if Eduardo hired them.”

  Jamie interjected. “Wait a second. I’m completely lost.”

  “Hope is implying that Eduardo feels unsympathetic about Dick’s death.” Carter said, turning back to Hope. “But I think I know what you’re up to.”

  Hope donned an innocent expression. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re trying to make Eduardo look guilty of something. You are creating drama where there is none.”

  “I’m all about the facts,” she said. “I never exaggerate the truth.”

  “And what kind of information were you expecting to find inside Britt’s villa?”

  “I was simply trying to gather information about Dick and Brittany to use for the book I’m writing.”

  Lauren crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. “You have some nerve, lady. A woman just lost her husband and you want to profit from that? You disgust me.”

  “It’s my job,” she said, her tone unapologetic. “If it’s any consolation, I am sorry about what happened to Dick - but there’s a story to tell and I’m the best person to tell it.”

  “What story?” Jamie said. “Dick drowned. It was an accident. I don’t believe for a second that an owner of a resort conspired to kill a guest because of a small hunk of precious metal that’s barely worth the effort.”

  “That’s not entirely true,” Hope said. “Don’t you want to know the truth about what happened?”

  At that moment, Brittany appeared in the doorway, her face pale and eyes sunken in. All heads turned in her direction.

  Jamie was beside her in an instant. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better,” she replied in a whisper, as if she didn’t have the strength to speak in her regular voice.

  “What do you want to do about Hope?” Lauren asked. “Do we let her go or are you going to call the police and have her arrested for trespassing?”

  Brittany stared at Hope for a few seconds. “Maybe I’d like to know more about your theory.”

  Hope straightened in her chair and puffed out her chest slightly. “Thank you for hearing me out. What I need to do next is try and prove that Eduardo had somebody go down to the hot springs when Dick was alone. He wouldn’t do the killing himself so he would have to employ somebody that he trusts implicitly. Could be a family member or even one of his staff.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “But I can’t listen to this anymore.”

  Hope directed her attention to Brittany. “What happened to the gold your husband found? Do you still have it?”

  Britt paused. “Actually, I can’t find it. I’ve looked everywhere.”

  “Well, there you go,” Hope said, with increasing excitement. “When was the last time you saw the gold?”

  Brittany took a moment to think. “I remember that Dick put it inside the safe. He was very paranoid about anyone knowing about it. He warned me to keep my mouth shut so I had no idea he had spoken to Eduardo about it.”

  Hope beamed. “It makes perfect sense now. When you and Dick went back to the hot springs the second time, Eduardo had the cleaning lady come into your villa to look for the gold. Of course, the first place she would look is the safe. She probably had some kind of code to override the password to get inside.”

  My heart sank. “I hate to admit it, but I’m starting to think Hope might be on to something. Chiara was the waitress that Dick chastised the first night at dinner. She got demoted to a housekeeper position. She probably hates the guy.”

  Hope smiled with pride. “So you believe me now?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But it’s an interesting theory. You’d better have more proof if you’re going to insist on writing about it.”

  “I already have an appointment to visit with the coroner tomorrow. He seemed thrilled at the prospect of being interviewed by an award-winning journalist and author.”

  “Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back,” Lauren said to Hope.

  Carter looked at Britt. “Do you want to pursue this? It should be your decision.”

  Brittany’s shoulders slumped. “If I pursue this, it’ll mean I’ll have to stay in Italy and relive this nightmare all over again. I’m sorry but I’m not willing to turn my life upside down just on a hunch. I just want to go home.”

  I could see in Hope’s eyes, that she was scared of losing this opportunity.

  “Please,” Hope said to her. “I need your help with this. I’ll pay all your living expenses for as long as you need to stay here.”

  While Brittany appeared to think it over, Jamie pointed a finger at Hope. “You don’t care about Brittany. You just want your damned story. Admit it.”

  “Of course I do,” Hope said. “But I also want justice.”

  Jamie scoffed. “Yeah, you want justice only if it lines your pockets.”

  “I’ve made a decision,” Brittany said. “I want to move on with my life. If Hope wants to pursue this, she has my blessing but I will not be a part of it. I’m leaving first thing in the morning and that’s final.”

  Jamie and Lauren each smiled in victory. I had to admit, I was proud that Brittany had finally spoken up for herself. Maybe she was beginning to grow a backbone.

  Hope wasn’t looking so hopeful anymore. “Fine. I guess I’m not going to get any cooperation.”

  “If everyone doesn’t mind, I think I’d like to have some privacy,” Brittany said. “My stomach is still a little queasy and I need to take nap.”

  “What about the award-winning journalist?” Lauren said, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder. “Do we just let her go with a slap on the wrist?”

  “Yes,” Brittany said. “There’s no point in getting anyone in trouble. I just want this to be over. Okay?”

  Hope got to her feet and straightened her pants. She stomped out of the villa without saying another word to anyone.

  Lauren and Jamie gave Brittany a hug and told her they’d be next door if she needed them.

  That left me and Carter.

  “Are you leaving from the Rome airport tomorrow morning?” I asked. “Because we’re planning to spend the day in the city. We could drop you off at your terminal.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “But Lauren and Jamie already offered to take me. They’ve been so sweet to help out.”

  “They certainly have taken you under their wing. Like two mother hens, protecting their baby.”

  Brittany laughed for the first time. “You are so right. By the way, have you seen Calvin around? I wonder if he got the news about the autopsy. I can’t believe he hasn’t stopped by to say hello.”

  “I saw him a little while ago,” I said. “He was driving to Rome for a day then heading home after that.”

  Brittany seemed disappointed.

  I decided not to tell her the bad news that Dick’s estate is being gobbled up by creditors. I reached over to give her a hug. “Take care of yourself, Britt.”

  Carter gave her a hug too. “And don’t get bossed around by that
writer,” he said. “I expect she won’t give up until you’re on that plane tomorrow.”

  “Don’t worry,” Britt said. “I can handle her.”

  It was almost seven o’clock by the time Carter and I got back to our villa. We decided that neither one of us was in the mood to go out for dinner. We ordered a pizza to bring back and spent the rest of the evening watching reruns of Castle, dubbed in Italian.

  Chapter 16

  The next morning I lay in bed with my eyes wide open at five-thirty. I couldn’t fall back to sleep. Since Carter was snoozing away, I gently slid out of bed and put on my running gear. I left a note for Carter and slipped out the door. Using my cell phone as a flashlight, I headed out into the chilly, dark morning.

  I’ll admit, I couldn’t stop thinking about Hope Dillard and her theory about Eduardo. Absurd? Yes. Possible? Of course, anything’s possible when you’re dealing with greed.

  I headed down the trail to the hot springs despite the sign still posted to keep out.

  I wondered if any of those hired teenaged boys had found anything, yet. Probably not. What were the odds that Dick actually found that nugget in the first place? A million to one? A billion to one? I had no idea.

  I guess it’s because of my curious nature that I can’t leave things alone. I get antsy and irritable when I can’t figure something out. Call me stubborn, but that’s the way I am.

  When I got down to the water, the sky was beginning to lighten. As I stood by the river’s edge, the whooshing sound of the water mesmerized me. I thought about the first morning Carter and I were here, how we thought we’d had the place to ourselves. I remembered how Carter grabbed me in the nick of time before I got swept away.

  I wandered downstream toward the falls and then just beyond to the calmer pool where I’d discovered Dick. The image of his lifeless body sent a chill through me.

  As I perched on a rock, I peered into the pool, the current creating foamy waves. Easy to imagine someone losing his footing and going down and, depending on where he’d been standing, hitting his head on one of the protruding rocks, just like the one I was standing on now.

  Another possible scenario could be, someone attacked him with a rock. I searched the area around me and found a smaller rock. I lifted it up with both hands, trying to judge its weight. I estimated between eight and twelve pounds. If I were intent on killing someone, this little baby could do the trick if enough force came behind it. Then a gruesome thought occurred to me. I might be holding the murder weapon in my hand, right now.

  Not likely. There were hundreds of rocks this size lining the bank, so any of them could be the murder weapon, assuming there was a murder to begin with. Hope Dillard had made a big deal out of her gold theory. Her accusations against Eduardo were unfounded and yet she had made some interesting points.

  I stood up and continued to walk down stream. The trail ended and I had to navigate prickly bushes that stuck into my side like thorns. Clearly, this was an area that most people avoided. Needless to say, I didn’t get very far.

  I stopped to catch my breath and looked around. A shiny metal object caught my eye and I crouched down to examine it.

  It appeared to be a cell phone, half wedged under a rock.

  I reached into the water and began to wriggle it free. Once I had it in my palm, the thing was slimy and slick, with mud covering half of it. Could this be Dick’s missing cell phone?

  I cleaned it off with some leaves and tried to turn it on. I didn’t expect anything would happen. Of course the battery would be dead after three days, not to mention being submerged in water. I didn’t know much about cell phones but this one looked fancy.

  I have never been a gadget person, at least not until recently. Being a private investigator, it helps to have the latest technology and an understanding of how it works. Carter subscribes to a magazine called Spies Like Us, which is basically the Consumer’s Digest of our industry. They test everything from low end surveillance equipment to multi-million dollar drones, to face-scanning sunglasses. Carter could sit and read the magazine cover to cover, just for entertainment.

  I slipped the cell phone into my pocket and navigated my way back through the thick bushes; but when I returned to the trail that would lead me back to the villas, I realized I wasn’t alone.

  It was too late to divert off the trail because I knew Eduardo had already seen me. My best course of action? Play dumb.

  Jogging in place, I stopped to greet him.

  He blinked at me in surprise. “Ms. Woods, you are an early riser.”

  “Yeah. I figured I’d get my exercise done first thing.”

  He paused to glance around. “You’re very brave to be down here all alone. You’re not afraid of the wild boars?”

  I laughed, although I couldn’t tell from his serious expression whether or not he was teasing me. “By the way, I noticed you still have the sign posted on the trail. The police haven’t been by to take it down, huh?”

  Eduardo tilted his head and regarded me with interest. “As a matter of fact, I just took it down myself. It seems there will be no investigation and, therefore, no reason to keep my guests from enjoying it once again.”

  Since he was being so talkative, I decided to push my luck a little. “So, how is the search going?”

  His eyebrows scrunched together. “I beg your pardon?”

  “The search for the gold,” I said. “I saw the teenaged boys down here yesterday.”

  His jaw went slack.

  I took a moment to study his face and surmised he had no idea what I was talking about. But I’ve been fooled before so I didn’t entirely trust my instincts. “There were about six of them,” I said. “I think they were looking for gold.”

  “If I may ask, what time did you see them?”

  “Just before dark. Around five-thirty, I think.”

  He pinched his chin as if contemplating. “I think I may know who put those boys up to it.”

  “Who?” I asked, hoping he’d indulge me.

  “The man who owns the property next to me, further into the valley. Our families have been disagreeing over property lines for many generations. He seems to think he owns part of the hot springs but he doesn’t. Once in a while I catch him down here, looking for gold. He must have heard about the recent discovery and hired those boys.”

  “By the way,” I said, pressing my luck to continue, “Dick showed you the nugget he found, right?”

  “Yes, he showed it to me. I congratulated him on a fine discovery. He would have a fun story to tell his friends back home.”

  “Did you offer to buy the gold nugget from him?”

  “No. Why do you ask?”

  “The gold is missing. Brittany can’t find it anywhere.”

  He shook his head. “She never reported anything stolen.”

  “How much do you estimate the gold was worth?”

  He shrugged. “A few hundred euros. Maybe more.”

  “But the gold was found on your property,” I said. “Don’t you think it should belong to you?”

  Eduardo gave me a strange look. “Why is this your concern?”

  “It’s not. I just think it’s curious. Dick finds a gold nugget and then hours later he is dead. Then, the gold nugget goes missing.”

  He took a step back and let out a sharp laugh. Apparently he found this amusing. “You’re tugging my chain, aren’t you?”

  “The phrase is, yanking my chain,” I said. “And as a matter of fact, I’m not.”

  His demeanor changed to confusion. “Oh.”

  “Have you ever had a problem with the housekeepers stealing things from guest’s rooms?”

  Eduardo blinked at me. “No, of course not. Are you accusing one of my staff of theft?”

  Realizing I had overstepped my boundaries, I apologized to Eduardo for my rudeness. I decided to drop the subject of the gold. If Eduardo was involved in Dick’s death, he’d be more on the defensive. There was no hint of resentment at all. Hope Dillard’s
theory began to crumble.

  “Well, I had better head back. Carter and I are doing Rome today.”

  “Excellent choice,” he said. “Drive safe.”

  Chapter 17

  When I got back, Carter had just emerged from a steamy shower, a towel wrapped around his slim waist.

  I placed the muddy cell phone on the counter. “Look what I found.”

  Carter squinted at the device. “Looks like a cell phone.”

  “Yep. It was wedged under a rock downstream.” I wiped it down with a towel and noticed how scratched the surface was. I placed it in Carter’s hand.

  He inspected it with interest. “It’s a Sony Xperia phone, one of the most expensive on the market. It’s supposed to be waterproof. I can’t be sure it’s the exact one but Dick had the same phone.”

  “Did you bring that universal charger kit with you?”

  He opened his laptop case and withdrew a cord, then plugged it into his laptop. “Let’s give it a few minutes and see what happens.”

  “So I ran into Eduardo on my way up the trail. He claims to have no knowledge of the boys I saw panning for gold yesterday. He thinks a neighbor might be involved.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “He admitted that Dick had shown him the nugget, but Eduardo told me it wasn’t worth much. I’ve been thinking that Hope Dillard might have misunderstood him when she eavesdropped on that conversation. She claims to be fluent in Italian but I’m starting to think she made all that up.”

  Carter laughed. “Well, she has one heck of an imagination, I’ll give her that.”

  I began to peel off my sweaty jogging clothes and headed to the bathroom. “So, what should we do about the cell phone, provided we get it to turn on?”

  Carter continued to get dressed and checked the clock. “We should give it to Brittany, if she hasn’t left yet. Do you remember what time the sisters are taking her to the airport?”

  “No,” I said. “They just mentioned they had to leave early.”

  Carter tried turning the cell phone on and, surprisingly, it came to life. “Look at that. Maybe these phones really are worth the price. I’m impressed.”