Dumping some bagged, prepared salad mix into a bowl, I added a chopped apple, some dried cranberries, and a few almonds to the mix before dotting the top with raspberry walnut salad dressing. I stowed the bowl of salad in the refrigerator until Bear had cooled down and stopped panting. Then I delighted him by giving him a couple of the treats I’d purchased at the Paw-tisserie before I ate my salad while scrutinizing my project list and categorizing the various projects. I now had a very workable total of two dozen possible projects, and I’d be able to start on the introduction and book outline to send Jenna.
My phone rang, and I picked it up, assuming that Luke was returning my call, but it was Liz with an invitation to dinner, which I promptly accepted. After promising to bring wine, I told her that I’d see her at seven. Good, I thought. A conversation with Liz was something else I’d planned to do today that I was actually going to get done.
Now I just had to find out whether Bessie wanted a party and ask her for her dog biscuit recipe. I thought it was odd that Luke hadn’t returned my call. It had been several hours since I’d tried to contact him, so I tried again, but there was still no answer. This time, I didn’t leave a message. I called the community center’s main number and talked to Cassie, the fulltime receptionist, who said that she hadn’t seen Luke all day, but that it wasn’t “her day to watch him.” I certainly wasn’t going to ask Patty if she knew where Luke was, so I decided to drive to the community center and look for him myself.
Bear had settled down for his afternoon nap, and although he gave me his usual pleading look, designed to make me have a guilt trip for leaving him, I knew from experience that he’d go back to napping soon after I left the house. Bear’s a creature of habit, and a long afternoon nap is part of his daily routine.
The community center’s lobby was empty when I arrived, and it was easy to bypass the administrative offices, where Patty ruled the roost, and slip down the hall to Luke’s office, which was empty. I decided to leave a message on his desk, but the door was locked, so I quickly scribbled a brief note to him and slid it under the office door. As I went back past the HOA’s administrative offices, I heard angry voices, and, through the windows that separated the offices from the hallway, I could see that Luke and Patty were arguing. Only Patty and Luke were there, both standing behind the counter in the reception area, rather than in Patty’s office. The clerks and receptionist must have gone out to lunch, I figured, leaving Patty alone, and Luke must have come along from the lobby while I was leaving him a note.
Curious, I ducked back beside the wall and sat on a low bench in the hallway, where neither Patty nor Luke could see me, but I had no problem hearing them.
“I can’t approve this. You’re requisitioning $500 for a party for that old crone? Ridiculous!”
“That ‘old crone,’ as you call her, has been a loyal employee of Hawkeye Haven for over ten years.”
“If she’d been doing her job, her gun never would have been stolen, and she wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital.”
“That’s not fair. Anyone could have been the victim of a surprise attack.”
“I doubt it. Your entire security staff must have an average age of about seventy. Why don’t you hire some people who can take care of themselves?”
“I’m going to ignore that remark, Patty. My staff does a good job, and I’m proud of them. And by the way, I don’t work for you. I report directly to the board. That means I don’t need your approval on the requisition. The new board president, Rachel Casswell, has already okayed the party for Bessie.”
“If that’s true, she’s a bigger fool than I thought she was.”
“You might not want to spread that around, Patty. She’s your boss, too, now that Victor is gone.”
“You sound a little too happy that Victor’s dead, Luke. You never did get along with him, and we both know he was about ready to fire you. It seems awfully convenient that you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Where were you when he was shot?”
“As I already told you, I don’t report to you. You’re the one who should be worrying about losing her job now that Victor’s dead. He was the only reason the board contracted with your management company in the first place.”
Cautiously, I sidled up to the window and peered inside. The look on Patty’s face said it all. Luke’s last comment had hit home. If Patty and her management company were on the way out, I didn’t know anyone who would be the least bit sorry about it. I really hoped that Luke was right and that the HOA board would look for a different management company to replace Patty’s as soon as her year-long contract expired. I figured she probably had about another six months to go—six months in which she could wreak considerable havoc if she chose, and since she was such an ill-natured and vindictive person, I had no doubt that she would do it. Of course, the board members could rein her in if they wanted to, but they’d all seemed like such milquetoasts at the HOA meeting that I wondered whether they’d exert their authority or just let Patty do as she pleased until her contract expired.
I slid back onto the bench just as Luke exited the office, shutting the door with mock precision as he left. When he saw me, he motioned me to come with him, and we headed back towards his office. Although he’d exchanged angry words with Patty, he didn’t seem too upset by the encounter.
“I suppose you heard all that, Laurel?”
“Sure did. I didn’t realize that you reported to the board and not the management company. That’s great!”
“In this case, it certainly is. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to return your call, Laurel. I came in late this morning because I covered for one of our rover drivers who was sick last night. I didn’t even get a chance to check my messages until just a few minutes ago. Then I had to go out to the main gate, and about that time, Patty summoned me to her office. Even though I don’t report to her, I still have to put up with some of her nonsense.”
“That’s a shame, Luke. She’s such an unpleasant person.”
“That she is. Anyway, Bessie’s son Tom brought her in a little while ago just as I was arriving, and they both liked the idea of having a going-away party for her. She was so overwhelmed that I thought she might start crying. I’m glad she didn’t, though. If there’s anything that really makes me uncomfortable, it’s a woman’s tears.”
“I’m really happy that she wants to have the party. When will we be having it?”
“Wednesday at six, if that’ll give you enough time to issue invitations and have some food catered.”
“All right. I can do that. Is there anyone Bessie wants to invite? Besides her son and daughter-in-law, I mean.”
“Well, I guess I was right to ask for help on this. I didn’t even think to ask her.”
“No problem. I can call to ask her, if you’ll give me her number.”
“Sure. Let me see.” Luke rifled through some papers on his desk and copied a number onto the back of one of his business cards, which he handed me.
“I assume you’ll want to invite the board members and the security team. I’ll send you an e-vite that you can forward to all of them, and it would be a good idea to mention the party to people you see in person, especially since we’re not giving them much notice. I’ll take care of inviting the residents that Bessie knows and anybody else Bessie would like to invite.”
“That’s great, Laurel. You’re already more organized that I’d ever be. Don’t forget that we have $500 for food or anything else you’ll need. I’ll have the cash here for you tomorrow. I’ll just need receipts to back up our records.”
“Okay, great. I can probably get everything we need at Costco. To keep it simple, we’ll probably stick with subs, snacks, and desserts along with coffee, water, and soft drinks. We have that big coffee maker here for meetings, so that’ll be handy. I’ll get some of my friends to help me with the decorations and make party favors.”
“Good. Is there anything else you need me to do?”
“Yes, give a short sp
eech to honor Bessie, and I’ll make a nice certificate to commemorate her ten years of service to the community that you can present her. Then, we should also give her some kind of a gift. We could solicit donations for the gift, but we don’t have much time, so we should probably just pay for it out of the $500 budget. I can juggle the food budget so that we have enough to buy her the retirement present,” I said, feeling less confident than I sounded because I knew that the budget was already tight.
“Now I’m happier than ever that I asked you to help. I never would have thought about that. Maybe I should get her some flowers, too.”
“That would be nice, but a plant might be easier for her to take home, and it’ll last longer.”
“Okay, maybe I better have my wife help me pick something out.”
“Good. I think we’re all set. Can you meet us in the meeting room at five on Wednesday to set up the tables? A little muscle would sure be welcome.”
“I’ll be there, and I’ll have Kenny there to help, too. Thanks, Laurel.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad Bessie’s going to have some positive recognition. She seemed so down just a few days ago, and I’m hoping the party will cheer her up a bit.”
“Head injuries can be dicey, but she seems to be doing okay, as far as I can tell. She looked better this morning.”
“That’s good.” I hesitated, uncertain that I should bring up something Patty had said, but my curiosity pushed me ahead. “Uh, Luke, I know it’s none of my business….” That was an understatement, but I pressed on. “But I heard Patty say earlier that Victor wanted to fire you?” I made it a question, rather than a statement, but I could tell that Luke was irritated at me for asking him. He gazed coolly at me, and I squirmed uncomfortably.
“You’re right. It is none of your business,” he sighed, “but I suppose Patty will be spreading that story around, and once something hits the Hawkeye Haven grapevine, it’s all over the community. It’s true. Victor threatened to fire me. According to the HOA’s bylaws, firing the head of security requires a majority of the board members to vote for removal. Luckily for me, Victor didn’t schedule that vote for last week’s meeting, so I’m off the hook for now. Of course, the remaining board members can do whatever they like, but I get along with all of them, so there’s no reason to think they’re going to fire me. The reason Victor didn’t schedule the vote for last week’s meeting was precisely that I do get along with everybody on the board. Victor’s the only one I didn’t see eye-to-eye with, and he would have needed some time to convince the other board members to vote to oust me.”
“It doesn’t sound as though Victor had the votes to fire you anyway.”
“He seemed to have a lot of influence with the board members, though. I always suspected that he had something on each of them because he always seemed to get his way eventually, so I’m sure I’d be a goner if he hadn’t been murdered.”
“I’m sorry, Luke. I shouldn’t have brought it up. If anyone spreads the word about Victor’s wanting to fire you, it’ll have to be Patty. I won’t say a word to anyone.”
Luke shrugged. I could tell he still wasn’t happy with me for bringing up an unpleasant subject. I hated to leave things between us on a sour note, especially because I thought Luke was a good guy.
“Seriously, Luke, I do apologize.”
Luke smiled weakly. “That’s okay, Laurel. Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t be worrying about it either, anymore. It’s over and done with, so let’s just go on and get ready for Bessie’s party. I just want to forget about Victor and all his nonsense, but sometimes it’s hard to do that because Patty’s still here.”
“I predict that the board won’t renew her contract.”
“Let’s hope they don’t,” Luke agreed. “Well, I should go now. I need to make my rounds. I’ll be sure to tell Kenny to be on deck to help with the room set-up on Wednesday.”
“See you then.”
Waving, I left Luke’s office. Although he no longer seemed upset with me, I knew that what I thought of as curiosity, other people regarded as nosiness, a trait which could put people off. I really didn’t want Luke to be one of those people, not only because I liked him, but also because he’s Liz’s grandson. I had to admit that learning about Victor’s desire to fire Luke had shaken me a bit, especially because I now realized that Luke had a motive to kill Victor. Although I didn’t think Luke was a killer, I didn’t really know him well. Could his relationship to Liz, my dear friend, be coloring my vision? Whether or not she ever revealed to Luke that she’s his grandmother, she would certainly be devastated if he turned out to be a murderer. No, I told myself; don’t let yourself think that way, but my mind kept whirling with thoughts about the possibility that Luke could somehow have been involved in Victor’s murder.
Okay, I had to sort this out, not only for Luke’s sake, but for Liz’s, too. I might as well start with the three crime basics that Cynthia had mentioned yesterday—means, motive, and opportunity. Last one first—opportunity. Was Luke in the community when Victor was killed? I didn’t know the answer to that question. With his job as head of security and his 24/7 access to Hawkeye Haven, he very well could have been on the scene. Nobody would think of the rover vehicle as suspicious, either, so driving it could have been a good way to approach Victor’s house. Even though I didn’t know exactly what time the murder had taken place, the window of opportunity for the killer might include Courtney’s night shift hours and the time it took her to drive to and from work. Too bad the police weren’t likely to share the estimated time of death. I remembered that Luke had told me that he’d arrived at the crime scene about the same time as the Center City police had shown up. I decided it might not be significant, anyway, given the ten-hour time frame during which the murder could have occurred, but maybe there was some way I could find out whether or not Luke had worked that night.
Second—motive. Luke had one, but was the prospect of being fired from his job as head of security for Hawkeye Haven enough to make him want to kill Victor? Luke seemed convinced that Victor would have eventually succeeded in getting rid of him, but I wasn’t really sure how harmful that would be to Luke’s career, and I knew that, as a twenty-year military man, he received a monthly pension. Unless there was some other factor I didn’t know about, Luke’s motive didn’t seem extremely strong to me, but I knew that people who had much weaker motives than Luke had been convicted of murder.
Last—means. Did Luke have the means to kill Victor; that is, did he somehow gain control of Bessie’s weapon and use it to kill Victor? That brought up another question. Could Luke himself have attacked Bessie, taken her gun, and used it to kill Victor? Luke had certainly arrived at the scene quickly after Bessie had been attacked, but that didn’t mean much since he could have easily driven there in the rover in just a few minutes from any location in Hawkeye Haven. What had Bessie said about her attacker? Whoever it had been had seemed familiar. Although Luke would qualify, Bessie had also said that the person seemed to be a few inches taller than she is. At five feet, six inches, I’m about four inches taller than Bessie myself, so if Bessie was right, whoever attacked her was about my height. That certainly would eliminate Luke, who stands over six feet tall. However, assuming that he had not attacked Bessie, he still might have been able to find the weapon the attacker stole and use it to kill Victor. That seemed a little far-fetched, though. Wasn’t it Luke who had told me that the murder weapon was Bessie’s gun? What if he’d been lying about that? It didn’t seem likely, given the fact that there was really no reason I could think of that he would make up information to feed me. After all, I wasn’t involved in the investigation.
Despite telling myself that it seemed highly unlikely that Luke could be Victor’s killer, I couldn’t help worrying that Patty would share her opinions with a resident or employee of Hawkeye Haven, and then the rumor would fly all over the community. Once that happened, Liz was bound to hear it, and she’d be terribly upset that her grandson was sus
pected of being a murderer. As I’d pledged to Luke, I wouldn’t tell anyone that Victor had been planning to fire Luke, but Patty couldn’t be counted on for discretion.
I figured that I should concentrate on the tasks I needed to accomplish so that we could have the party for Bessie Wednesday evening. Hurrying home, I called Bessie as soon as I placated Bear with another special snack from the Paw-tisserie. Bessie gave me a list of ten relatives and friends that she wanted to invite to the party. I chatted with her briefly, mentioning that I’d like to use her recipe in my new book if she had no objection. She liked the idea of the book, and she was excited that her recipe and her name as its author would appear in it. I gave Bessie my email address, and she said that she’d have her granddaughter send me the recipe because she and computers didn’t get along.
Since I had to get the invitations out as soon as possible, we didn’t talk long. Back at my computer, I merged Bessie’s list with my own list of several residents who know Bessie and a couple who had never met her; namely, my cousin Tracey and Liz, both of whom had agreed to help with the party. Then I quickly added some tweaks to a template I’d used for e-vites in the past and filled in the details of the event with an RSVP notation and my email address. Even though I requested an RSVP, I knew that everybody wouldn’t contact me, but at least I could get some indication of interest in the event, and I’d just have to guesstimate how much food to buy. As promised, I forwarded the e-vite to Luke, reminding him to send it to the board members and security team. Although we didn’t have much time to plan the event, I knew we could pull it off. Besides Tracey, Liz, and Cynthia, Amy had also agreed to help. She was just waiting for me to let her know that the party was a “go” before she started getting the table decorations together, so I called her and gave her the go-ahead. We decided to use a burgundy and gold color scheme with dried flower centerpieces at each table because Amy had made quite a few of them for an event that had been cancelled at the last moment, and she was happy that her handiwork wouldn’t go to waste.
Death by Association Page 11
