Final Settlement

by Vicki Doudera

  “Who knows? Neither one of us is sure where we want to live. He’s got his job in San Francisco, and I’m in San Diego. Whether we can figure out where we both want to be remains to be seen.”

  “What about here? Miles seems to like Maine.”

  “He does. I guess I don’t know if I want to give up my life in Mission Beach.”

  “You only went there because you were running away from here,” Tina pointed out.

  She’s right, Darby thought. “There isn’t room on Hurricane Harbor for two high-powered real estate agents,” she joked.

  “Ha! You know darn well that’s not true.” Tina took a deep breath. “You think Bitsy’s going to stick around?”

  “Seems like it. Didn’t she say she was going to look for a nursing job?”

  “Yeah.” Tina cocked her head. “There has to be an explanation for why she came back here, don’t you think?”

  “She’ll tell you when the time is right, Tina.” Darby exhaled. “Whew, I’m getting hot. How long has it been?”

  “Not quite ten minutes. But go ahead out if you’re baking.”

  Darby stood up carefully, feeling a little dizzy. She took a sip of her green tea and waited until the little cedar room stopped spinning. “I’ll meet you out there,” she said.

  “I’ll only be a few more minutes myself.” Tina lay back and sighed. “Feels so good. Maybe I’m going to like Mexico after all.”

  Darby chuckled and pulled on the door. It was heavy and did not budge. She tried again.

  “What’s going on?” Tina asked, opening one eye. “Your shoulder hurting?”

  “No, I’m using my good shoulder. The door is stuck.” Darby yanked on it again, using more force.

  “Let me try.” Tina rose and pulled on her robe. She tugged on the door but could not make it open. “That’s strange. Do you think Liza locks it until the fifteen minutes are up?”

  “I would hope not. What if you needed to get out for some reason? That wouldn’t make sense.”

  “I guess not.” Tina yanked on the door again. “Not getting this door open doesn’t make sense either. Let’s both pull it.”

  Together they tugged on the door but it did not give an inch.

  Tina pounded on the wood with her fist. “Liza? We’re ready to come out now.” She stopped and listened but there was no noise over the soothing strains of the piped-in music.

  Darby took a breath of the hot air and felt her lightheadedness returning. “I’m going to see if we can shut the heater off,” she said, approaching the red hot box in the corner of the cedar room.

  “Careful you don’t get burned,” Tina warned. She pounded on the door again. “Liza!” Her voice held a hint of panic.

  The heater was an upright metal rectangle in the corner of the room. A small bed of glowing rocks covered with a wire cage was on the top, and at the bottom were two round circles that Darby assumed were vents.

  “Do you see an off switch?” Tina asked.

  Darby licked her lips. They were bone dry. “No. It’s mounted to the wall and appears to be controlled from a remote location.”

  “Like Liza’s rear end!” Tina fumed, pounding on the door again. “Connie had better fire her ass, that’s for sure.” She gave Darby a wild look. “Fifteen minutes is surely up by now. Where the hell is that girl?”

  A scratchy sound came over the speakers, interrupting the music. “Tina? It’s Connie.”

  “Oh, thank God!” Tina exclaimed. “Connie, we’re stuck in the sauna. Liza was supposed to come, but we don’t know where she is.”

  “She’s right here, Tina.” Connie’s voice was very calm.

  Tina’s features grew puzzled. “Great. Send her over here to let us out. The darn door is stuck.”

  “It’s not stuck,” she explained in a patient tone.

  “Yes, it is,” Tina insisted. “We’re getting too hot in here and it’s stuck.”

  “It isn’t stuck, it’s locked.”

  There was silence as Tina regarded Darby with a look of disbelief on her face.

  “Listen, Connie. This is Darby Farr. We need you to come and unlock this door right now.”

  There was a chuckle over the speaker. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Darby.”

  “Then send Liza,” Tina pleaded.

  “That’s not possible. Poor Liza, you see, is heavily drugged. She can’t hear a thing and won’t have the slightest idea of what happens.”

  Darby’s throat tightened at the sound of Connie’s words.

  She looked at her friend. The tall redhead’s face was flushed a bright pink and she was panting slightly.

  “What do we do now?” Tina whispered.

  “I’m afraid you’re going to die,” Connie Fisher said. “It won’t take too long.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m one of your best clients!” Tina shook her head. “If you think this is funny, Connie, it’s gone way too far. Get over here and let us out.”

  “It’s your little friend, Tina. She won’t stop poking her nose into Lorraine Delvecchio’s death. I can’t take the chance that she’ll figure things out.”

  Darby’s mind was suddenly crystal clear. She had to get Tina out of the sauna, and to do that, she hoped her friend would keep Connie talking.

  “Figure what out?” Tina drawled, her voice becoming weaker. Darby handed her the rest of the green tea and the tall woman gulped it down.

  “Figure out that I arranged for Lorraine to die.” There was a sigh. “I might as well tell you while you sit there and fry. Sort of a bedtime story, I guess.”

  Darby examined the door’s hinges while over the loudspeaker Connie Fisher snickered.

  “Lorraine Delvecchio was blackmailing me. She started demanding more money when news of Scott’s possible appointment as Attorney General came out. I couldn’t take the chance that she would destroy his career with my little indiscretion from five years ago.”

  “What did you do?” Tina put her hand to her head.

  “It’s more like what I didn’t do,” Connie explained. “I was on the board for a battered woman’s shelter, and I diverted a few funds my way. It wasn’t a big deal, and I planned to pay it back as soon as my finances improved. Anyway, somehow sneaky little Lorraine noticed. Years later she’s got the nerve to approach me with a proposition. Either I start paying her, or she exposes me.”

  “Did you pay her?”

  “What choice did I have? I couldn’t let her ruin Scott’s reputation by tarnishing mine. But then she upped her demands, as people like that always do.”

  “So you hired the detective …”

  “Hired him?” Connie’s voice was hard. “All I had to do was ask.”

  “Huh?” Tina was swooning and Darby was feeling faint. If she didn’t think of a solution very soon, they would both be dead. A line Aunt Jane Farr used to say popped into her head, a saying that had always seemed ridiculous. “If your dreams have failed you, look up and dream again.” She tilted her head upward and felt a faint rush of hope.

  A metal grate of some kind was screwed into the ceiling.

  “Dave was my brother,” Connie said softly. “One of the few reasons I survived my messed-up childhood.”

  CR, Darby thought. Connie Robichaud. She glanced over at Tina, just in time to see the woman collapse onto the cedar bench.

  EIGHTEEN

  WITH ROSIE ASLEEP ON her lap, Bitsy picked up the photograph once more. Lorraine Delvecchio receiving a check from the banker, another man, and a woman who looked familiar. Charles’s scrawled writing: CR?

  She thought back to the morning of the day he had died, when they’d visited the prison in Manatuck. Leonard Marcus had been in Lorraine’s little ledger, one of her unfortunate blackmailing victims. Another had been someone with the initials “CR”.

  Was this what the scribbled letters meant? Was Charles suggesting that one of the people in the photo—either the unidentified man or woman—was the mysterious CR? Bitsy looked again at the faces,
but she could not come up with any names.

  Tina, she thought. Tina knew loads of people on the island. She picked up the phone and called Donny’s house, and a gruff-sounding male voice answered.

  “Did I wake you up from a nap?” Bitsy teased. She pictured the old caretaker blushing to the roots of his graying hair.

  “Nah, I was just watching a little football, that’s all.”

  Sure, Bitsy thought. Instead she asked if Tina was home.

  “She’s gone up to Westerly with Darby to some new spa or something,” he explained. “They’ll be back in a couple of hours.” He paused. “Do you need something, Bitsy?”

  She felt a pang of sadness, felt like saying Yes, I do need something. I need Charles back, I need not to be alone, I need to get this forty-pound puppy off my thigh …

  “No, Donny. I’m just looking at a photo and trying to figure out who some of the people are. It was in the Manatuck Gazette five years ago, and Charles has some writing on it. I wondered if Tina might recognize anybody, that’s all.”

  “Hmmm. Want me to have a gander? I’m headed over to check on the Merewether place and I can stop in and have a look if you’d like.”

  “That would be great. I’ll put a pot of coffee on.”

  She hung up, pushed the puppy off her lap, and placed the photo on the top of the hutch, a nice high spot where Rosie couldn’t chew it. The newspaper clipping and Charles’s scribbles were little clues he’d left for her to mull over, and she wasn’t about to let important police evidence get destroyed.

  _____

  Darby rushed to her friend’s side and shook her, hard. No, she wanted to scream in defiance. We are not going to die! She thought of how foolish she’d been to think everything was fine, when all along a murderer lurked in the shadows, just waiting to strike. Who am I to think I can solve crimes? I don’t know what I’m doing and now it’s going to get us killed.

  Please, Tina, she prayed. You can’t die.

  To her amazement, Tina opened her eyes, focused on Darby’s fierce look, and gave an imperceptible nod. Darby pointed to a duct at the top of the ceiling. Wearily Tina lifted her head and gazed upward, her eyes glassy.

  Darby put a finger to her lips. She then indicated that Tina should lift her up so that she could reach the duct.

  The two women were soundless, knowing that Connie was listening in.

  Tina boosted Darby up with a little puff of exertion. Darby touched the grate and to her amazement, it moved. Only one of the screws was in place, the result of a hurried—or lazy—worker.

  She rotated the grate outward so that there was a small opening into the ductwork, barely sixteen by sixteen inches. She glanced down at Tina.

  The redhead’s thin face was nearly scarlet and she was huffing like a marathoner. Darby ignored these signs and looked into her friend’s eyes. There she saw determination—the same emotion that made Tina a tough agent. She wasn’t going to let the crazed Connie win—at least not without a fight.

  A moment later Darby felt Tina straining to lift her higher and she scrambled to gain a purchase on the opening. With every ounce of strength she could muster, Darby contorted her naked body and slid into the heating duct.

  At the same time the metal scraped Darby’s hot skin, the voice of Connie crackled over the speaker. “Hey! You ladies dead yet?”

  _____

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Donny said, gazing at the photo with interest. He was too engrossed to be embarrassed that he’d sworn in front of Bitsy. “That’s Lucas Turner, the Catholic priest from Manatuck. He’s in a nursing home now, poor fellow. Kind of lost his marbles.”

  “Father Turner! I remember him from St. Catherine’s.” Bitsy pointed at the photo. “And the woman?”

  He squinted his eyes. “That’s Tina’s hairdresser. She’s the one with the new spa up in Westerly.” He put the photo down.

  “Connie?”

  “That’s right. Connie Fisher. Her husband is the DA in Mana-tuck.”

  “Oh.” Bitsy felt disappointed. She could now see the resemblance. The photo depicted a younger Connie, alright, but it didn’t seem to matter in terms of Charles’s notes. “Why do you think Charles wrote in ‘CR’?”

  “He must have been thinking of her name before she got married.”

  Bitsy felt a shiver that made her spiky hair stand even more on end. “What do you mean?”

  “She was a Robichaud.”

  Robichaud? Bitsy’s palms were suddenly damp. “Is Connie related to the detective who killed himself?”

  Donny cocked his head. “Guess I never thought about it, but yeah, I think so.”

  There was a silence as Bitsy contemplated the implications of Donny’s words. A moment later she looked into the caretaker’s worried face.

  “Tina and Darby are in danger.”

  _____

  Darby wriggled up the duct about a foot and spotted another metal grate opening. She inched toward it, her sweaty skin rubbing hard against the rough metal. It was some sort of a fan, probably for exhaust. Darby put her face against the grate and could feel the cold air of the February afternoon.

  If the grate was bolted from the outside, she was out of luck. The most she could hope for was to stay alive until someone found her. But Tina, trapped in the hot sauna itself, would have no chance of escaping. Darby hoped it was not already too late.

  She pushed with her good shoulder against the grate. The metal bit into her flesh, but did not move. She tried again, this time trying to ram it with her shoulder blade. Again, nothing happened.

  Darby felt desperation rising and she fought to keep it down. What was it her Aikido master always said? Do not overlook the truth that is right before you. She examined the exhaust fan for the key to its truth, and saw it in the form of two bolts.

  The bolts were lying across the grate, evidence of more laziness on the part of Connie’s team of builders. Although in her real estate practice she had cursed them, she was now thankful for slipshod contractors. She butted against the grate with her head, and this time it budged.

  Seconds later Darby had wriggled out of the opening and was standing stark naked on the roof of the spa.

  _____

  Bitsy and Donny called Deputy Allen, who promised he would contact the Westerly police immediately. They then grabbed their coats and headed for the door.

  “What about Rosie?” Bitsy asked, frantic.

  “Bring ’er,” Donny commanded. “Let’s go.”

  They sped toward town, down the hill, past the Hurricane Harbor Inn and the Café, but the ferry was easing away from the shore as Donny and Bitsy pulled up. “Wait,” Bitsy screamed. “Wait!”

  “It’s no use,” Donny said. “They can’t hear you, and even if they did, they don’t stop that thing ever.” He gave her a strange look. “Okay, listen. I know what we gotta do, but I tell you, it’s going to be cold.”

  “Who cares? We’ve got to get to Westerly as fast as we can.”

  Donny grunted and threw the truck into reverse. He whipped around in a circle and headed toward the public landing. There he jabbed a finger at the dark ocean water. “My boat. Let’s hope she starts in this bitter weather.”

  Bitsy gulped and grabbed Rosie’s leash. She felt freezing cold already.

  NINETEEN

  DARBY CRAWLED ACROSS THE slippery roof, her feet numb from the icy shingles. Whatever emotions she might have felt at being unclothed in broad daylight on a low roof in Westerly were obliterated by her worry at Tina’s condition. She knew, in rough terms, what must be happening to her friend’s weakened body. By now, Tina’s system was sorely low on fluids, hindering her skin’s ability to sweat and stressing her heart to the point where she was extremely vulnerable to an attack. Proteins in other organs, such as Tina’s kidneys, had most likely become denatured, causing a complete shut down of those systems. And poor Tina’s brain …

  Darby knew that the human brain was super sensitive to high temperatures, and that excessive heat c
aused high-clarity thinking to vanish. Was Tina in a stupor on the floor of the sauna? Was she even still alive? As Darby jumped from the eave of the roof six feet down onto a crusty mound of snow, she prayed that the brain in her redheaded friend’s skull had not yet fried.

  _____

  “Darby?” Terri Dodge’s voice was horrified. “What are you doing?” She glanced up and down the street, pulled off her svelte mink coat, and wrapped it around the real estate agent, who was pounding on the door of the Evergreen Day Spa.

  “Tina’s in danger,” Darby screamed, her body shivering under the fur. “We’ve got to get in there.”

  “I’ve been trying. It’s locked.” She peered into her face. “What do you mean she’s in danger?”

  “Connie Fisher tried to kill us. Tina is trapped in the sauna.” She looked wildly at the side of the building. “That window—we’ve got to break it.”

  “But …” Suddenly Terri seemed to understand the severity of the situation. “You say she’s got my sister in there?”

  “Yes!” Darby’s feet were numb as she tried to walk. “She’s trying to kill her.”

  The next thing Darby knew, Terri had picked up a large chunk of ice and hurled it against the glass.

  _____

  Donny tied a quick half-hitch to secure his boat and he, Bitsy, and Rosie scrambled out.

  “I think the place is just over there.” Donny pointed less than a block away and began running. Bitsy followed, the dog pulling her like a water-skier over the snow. They dashed across the road. The streets of Westerly were quiet, the light starting to wane as the winter sun sunk lower in the sky.

  Tina’s SUV was parked in the spa lot. Terri Dodge’s Mercedes was beside it.

  “Right here.” Bitsy, out of breath, indicated the Evergreen Day Spa’s gracious front entrance.

  A moment later, Donny yanked on the door.

  “Closed up tighter than a drum,” he said.

  “Over here,” Bitsy yelled, “There’s a smashed window!”

  Donny sprang to the side of the building and took in the gaping hole in the glass. He reached up with his gloved hands and hoisted himself into the space.