Murder Wears a Veil

by Maddie Cochere

  “Unless it’s to visit Hank and Nancy in their new house,” I added quickly, nudging Glenn in his side.

  Nancy’s phone dinged. She looked at the message and then up at Hank. “Cara’s son is sick. She’s on her way to pick him up at school and has to cancel our appointment. She said she’d call later to see if we’d like to make an offer on anything we’ve seen so far.”

  I should have just left my mouth hanging open, because my jaw dropped once more. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you? I thought you’d get back home and realize it was just a passing fancy.”

  Hank laughed. “Yes, we’re serious. Who wouldn’t want to live here? There’s nothing keeping us in Ohio, and we’ll still see family. You know you’ll come here every year if we’re living here and you have a free place to stay.”

  He was probably right.

  “We should get going,” Glenn said. “Why don’t you come with us? That will give you one more house to see before you leave even though it’s not for sale.”

  They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

  “Ok,” Hank said. “Let me grab the car keys. I’ll drive.”

  He took off into the hotel.

  “What car keys?” I asked Nancy. “Mama said Buck and Pepper took the van.”

  “Hank worked out a deal with one of the night managers. He photographed his daughter’s sweet sixteen birthday luau Saturday night in exchange for using his wife’s car while we’re here. Lucille would have rented one for us, but Hank didn’t want to ask. He’s been uncomfortable from the beginning about letting her pay for everything.”

  Glenn shook his head. “He shouldn’t have been. Estelle said Lucille was worth millions and would never live long enough to spend all her money. She was happy to do this for us.”

  “Maybe, but Hank likes to barter, and we had fun at the luau, so the arrangement worked out well.”

  Hank came out the doors and jogged over to us. The smile on his face telegraphed how happy he was. Hank had dated his fair share of girls, but until he met Nancy, they had always been short-term relationships. It was love at first sight when he saw Nancy at the grand opening of Baranksi and Ravens - now Baranski and Wheeler - Investigations. He asked her to marry him six months later.

  “It’s an older Lincoln,” he said, “but it’s comfortable, and the air conditioning works.”

  He led us to a small employee parking lot and a pink Continental. I was a bit horrified at the huge car, but Glenn apparently liked it.

  “She’s a beaut,” Glenn said appreciatively. “When I was a kid, our neighbor had one just like it, only his was a convertible. He used to take it out on Sundays. Sometimes he’d let me and my buddies ride along.”

  “You drove around in a pink Lincoln?” I asked. “I didn’t think young guys would be caught dead in a pink car.”

  He smiled. “My neighbor’s wasn’t pink. It was white, and it was sweet.”

  “Sit in back with me, Jo,” Nancy said. “The guys can talk cars up front. We’ll do some wedding planning.”

  The drive to Pete Sinclair’s house didn’t take as long as it had this morning when we were looking for a place to launch Lucille. During the twenty-minute drive, Nancy decided on orange as the primary color for her wedding. I thought it was a good choice.

  Hank pulled into the driveway and looked at me in the rearview mirror. “Do you want to go alone and knock first?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Let’s all go together. Pete might not be so quick to cut us off if we’re all on his doorstep.”

  We climbed out of the pink monstrosity and headed for the door. I rang the bell twice, but no one answered. Hank pounded on the door with so much force, I was sure the neighbors down the road would answer their door.

  “Wait here,” Glenn said. “Let me check around back and see if I can spot anyone.”

  “I’ll go,” I said.

  He put his hand on my arm. “No. He already has you once for trespassing. If I see anyone, I’ll explain I’m a police officer and just want to ask some questions.”

  “But you have no jurisdiction here,” Nancy said.

  Hank chuckled and kissed his petite fiancé on the top of her head. “You’re so cute. He’s going to say whatever he has to so we can get inside.”

  She giggled.

  Theirs was one of those oohey-gooey, lovey-dovey, baby-talking relationships. I loved them both but couldn’t stand to be with them for very long once the childish talk started. They’d been behaving pretty well so far today.

  Glenn jogged around to the back of the house. I glanced up at the sun. The weather had been perfect all week. Temperatures were mid-eighties during the day and low-seventies in the evening. I had expected scorching temperatures but was thrilled when paradise turned out to actually be paradise.

  However, I didn’t enjoy standing in the hot sun on Pete Sinclair’s front porch, and after ten minutes had elapsed, with Hank and Nancy getting very close to making out in front of me, I decided to go see what was taking Glenn so long.

  I no sooner stepped off the porch than the door opened. Pete stood in the doorway wearing a bathrobe and slippers. His hair was wet. He didn’t say a word. He simply left the door open, turned, and walked away.

  We took that as a sign to follow him. He led us to a lower level and a large family room. It was the room with the glass doors leading to the back yard. Glenn was already seated on a large leather sofa.

  I couldn’t resist walking over to the doors and looking down. It might be my only chance to see if there was any sign of blood across the threshold or on the patio.

  There wasn’t.

  Hank faced Pete, stuck his hand out, and said, “I’m Hank Frasier, and this is my fiancée, Nancy Baranski. We tagged along with Jo and Glenn, because this house is a timeshare. Do you own the property, or is this one of your allotted times to stay?”

  Pete looked at Glenn with disdain. “I thought you said you had information about my coins. You barged in here so this guy could look at a timeshare? You people are nuts, and you need to leave.”

  I sat down next to Glenn. “That’s not why we’re here. I do have information for you.”

  Hank looked uncomfortable. “How about if Nancy and I take a walk outside? We’ll let you guys talk, and when you’re done, maybe you could show us around.” He didn’t wait for Pete to answer. He grabbed Nancy’s hand and pulled her along to the sliding glass doors and outside.

  “I have an appointment,” Pete said, falling back into a matching leather chair. “Make this quick.”

  Before I could ask any questions, Glenn said, “First, we’d like to congratulate you on your wedding.”

  Pete seemed irritated by his comment. “I’m not married.”

  Glenn and I exchanged glances. “Isn’t that why you’re in Hawaii?” I asked. “To get married? I read it online in a newspaper article.”

  He looked at the carpet beside his chair and spotted a small stain. He stared at it for several seconds before looking back to us and asking, “Do you believe everything you read in the newspaper?”

  “I believed this article,” I said. “You left Chicago to come here and marry Natalie Ping, the soap heiress.”

  He seemed even more irritated now. “What do you want? Did you come here to talk about my wedding or give me information about my coins? Which is it?”

  “I don’t know anything about your coins,” I said. “I wasn’t in your house, and I didn’t steal anything. You heard why we were on your property. All we did was launch an old woman’s ashes into the ocean. Afterward, everyone went to the van. I stayed behind for a few minutes at the edge of the property,” I said pointedly, “and that’s when I saw something.”

  He sat up a little straighter in his chair and eyed me suspiciously.

  I pointed to the glass doors. “A woman wearing a wedding dress opened those doors and dragged a man wearing a tuxedo outside. She dragged him down the yard and into the patch of flowers and shrubs at the bot
tom. I watched her push him over the cliff.”

  He frowned. “You’re crazy. Do you think if you make up a story about a murder, it will take away from the fact that you stole my coins?” He jumped up from the chair. “I’m calling Detective Hale.”

  “Wait a minute,” Glenn said. “Sit down and talk to us. Something happened here. A robbery. A murder. Maybe both. We want to help. I’m a police officer, and Jo’s a private investigator. If you know something, let us help you before we leave tonight.

  He sat back down in the chair and chewed a thumbnail while staring out the windows at Hank and Nancy. Thankfully, they weren’t making out on his lawn.

  He finally said with a defeated countenance, “If I hire you, you have to keep everything I tell you confidential, right?”

  The man looked tired. He wasn’t wearing the black glasses he had worn this morning, and he didn’t look creepy now. He looked as if he had been up all night.

  “No,” I said. “We’re not doctors or lawyers, so we’re under no obligation to keep your confidences. You’ll have to trust us that what you say will stay between us.”

  He pondered my words for a few moments before blurting out, “My wife’s missing.”

  “So you did get married,” Glenn said.

  He shook his head. “Her parents stopped the wedding last night. They came in here with some hired security thugs and took Natalie away. They said she’d marry me over their dead bodies. I told them that could be arranged. It was ugly.”

  He hesitated for a few moments. I assumed he was going back over the details in his mind.

  “I went to her parent’s house this morning, probably while you were here at my place, and her parents said she was gone. There wasn’t a note or anything resembling foul play. They called the police, but it’s too soon for a missing person’s report. They said she could be out shopping or visiting a friend, and we need to wait at least twenty-four hours.”

  “Would it be like her to go shopping if she was upset?” I asked.

  “She’s not shopping,” he said firmly. “Someone abducted her. I wouldn’t put it past her parents to have arranged the kidnapping. They’re determined to keep us apart. They said a common dentist wasn’t marrying a princess.”

  “A real princess?” Glenn asked.

  “I don’t know. She has a younger sister, and I know they’re both heirs to the family fortune, but Natalie never mentioned her Hawaiian ancestry. If there’s a royal line, it’s news to me. I thought all that royalty stuff ended when Hawaii became a state and got senators and congressmen.”

  Glenn smiled. “I’m as clueless as you are.”

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “I’m going back to Chicago. Natalie will eventually show up. What her parents don’t know is that we were married last month in a downtown Chicago courthouse. She was afraid they’d pull a stunt like this, so we got married, consummated the marriage enough times that there may already be another heir on the way, and there’s no way her parents can keep us apart forever.”

  Glenn seemed impressed with the devotion and commitment they had to each other. “Very clever. I hope everything works out for you.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Wait a minute. Just wait a minute. I need to think. Something’s wrong here. I saw a bride and groom. It obviously wasn’t you and your wife, so who was it? How did those people get in here? Could it have been someone else who had keys to the timeshare?”

  He shook his head. “The front door has a magnetic strip lock, so the key is changed after every checkout.”

  I stared at him for a few moments before saying, “Whoever the woman was who threw the man over the cliff had a gun. She took a shot at me.”

  Pete looked thoroughly confused now. “If I hadn’t seen you on the surveillance tape, I’d swear you were on someone else’s property. I don’t see how any of that could have happened here.”

  I sat back and crossed my arms across my chest. “I know what I saw. Could Natalie have been here while you were gone?”

  He didn’t answer but shook his head for a negative response. “You can’t possibly think that was Natalie. There wasn’t any reason for her to come here with the wedding already canceled, and she would never kill anyone anyway. Even when people are mean to her, she’s still nice to them.”

  “Mean to her? Who’s mean to her?” Glenn asked.

  “Other women are jealous of her. She isn’t the most beautiful woman, so they aren’t jealous of her looks. They’re jealous of her money. She flaunts her wealth in outward ways with clothes, jewelry, and cars. She’s also a bit of a snob, but she’s never mean and would never kill anyone.”

  “Does she live in Hawaii?” I asked.

  He shook his head again. “She lives in Chicago. That’s where I met her. She had a dental emergency, and my office was the closest at the time. She barged in and demanded to be seen right away. It was pretty much love at first sight - if you believe in that sort of thing.”

  I couldn’t help glancing at Hank and Nancy.

  “How long ago was that?” Glenn asked.

  “A year next month. I gave her a ring last Christmas and asked her to marry me. I didn’t know anything about her family or that she was heir to a soap fortune until two months later. She said that was one of the reasons she knew our marriage would work - because I loved her for who she was and not for her fortune. I met her parents last month, and obviously, things haven’t gone well since.”

  “You didn’t have any idea she came from money and would one day inherit a fortune?” I asked incredulously. “Didn’t her possessions and attitude, not to mention her name, give it away for you?”

  He appeared offended by my question. “No. She’s an interior designer with high-end clients. She makes more money in one month than most people do in a year.”

  If Pepper were here, she would be just as judgmental as I was being in my mind right now. Something seemed off with Pete Sinclair and his marriage to Natalie Ping. I had no idea what it was, but for starters, he was far too calm if his wife was truly missing. I was certain he knew more than he was saying.

  Pete stood from his chair and walked over to a desk in the corner. “I don’t have time to give your friends a tour of the property.” He handed a card to Glenn. “They can contact the management company and arrange a showing.”

  Glenn thanked him and handed Pete a card of his own. “I don’t know what we can do to help, but if we come up with anything, we’ll let you know. If you hear from Natalie, give us a call.”

  Pete took the card and moved toward the glass doors. Glenn followed.

  “Do you mind if I use your bathroom before we leave?” I asked. I pretended to wiggle slightly. “We had a few drinks at the pool before we came here.”

  Pete’s disgusted look returned to his face, but he said, “Top of the stairs, first door to your right.”

  I promised to hurry and took off up the stairs. A quick glance over my shoulder showed Pete and Glenn had moved onto the patio.

  I didn’t waste any time. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I raced through the bedrooms. There were four of them.

  The first two yielded nothing of interest. The closet of the third contained two large garment bags. One was open and empty. I pulled the zipper on the second bag and found a wedding dress. I checked the lower part of the dress. There were several grass stains.

  As I pulled the full skirt clear of the zipper, I spotted a folded piece of paper in the bottom of the bag. I grabbed it and shoved it into the pocket of my shorts.

  The fourth bedroom was apparently the one occupied by Pete. There weren’t any female items anywhere. The dresser top was bare with the exception of a thick glass dish with two cuff links in it. I rifled through the drawers and lifted the clothing in the last drawer. There I found a blue book that was more like a folder. Inside were eight gold coins. Each had a monetary value of twenty dollars, but a label beneath each coin denoted a larger dollar amount. The lowest value was just over
one thousand dollars. The highest value was over seven thousand dollars.

  I put the book back, raced to the bathroom, and shut the door. Pepper would never forgive me if I didn’t check for a medicine chest. There wasn’t one, but there were more drawers to look through. Once again, I was surprised to see there weren’t any items belonging to Natalie. Why was her wedding dress here, and why did she visit Pete here without leaving anything behind?

  A loud knock sounded on the bathroom door.

  “Are you all right in there?” Pete asked.

  I flushed the toilet, sprayed a copious amount of Pete’s evergreen air freshener, and opened the door. I didn’t make eye contact as I mumbled, “Sorry. I didn’t expect to be so long.”

  I dashed down the stairs to the sliding glass doors where Glenn was waiting.

  “What took you so long? Are you feeling ok?”

  “I’m fine. Let’s go.” I bolted out the doors and took off at a run around the house. I didn’t want to go back through the house to the front door.

  Hank and Nancy were already in the car.

  Glenn must have stayed behind to thank Pete for his time and most likely apologize for my behavior. He was in the car a few minutes later.

  “What happened back there?”

  “Nothing happened,” I said.

  “That was disappointing,” Nancy said. “I really wanted to get a look at the kitchen.”

  Hank glanced over his shoulder at us. “The kitchens are her favorite part of a house. I like to look at the bedrooms. There’s always one that can be transformed into a darkroom. I don’t like working in basements.”

  I pulled my cell phone from my bag along with Detective Hale’s card. I punched in his number.

  “Why are you calling him?” Glenn asked.

  I held my finger up for him to wait a minute. The detective came on the line right away.

  “This is Jo Ravens – I mean, this is Jo Wheeler.” Sheesh. I hoped my new name would come easier to me soon. It felt odd referring to myself by another name. “I’m calling in a tip.”