by J A Whiting
“So, I told you how Andersen went to London the day after Aggie died and was only back in the US for a day when he was killed,” Olivia said. Joe had showered and was in the kitchen chopping onions and peppers. Olivia was cooking ground beef in one pan and bulgur wheat in another pot.
“Strange,” Joe said.
“There must be a connection between Aggie and Andersen. He had my picture in his wallet. They must have known each other and were on to something,” Olivia surmised. “Something dangerous obviously, since someone killed them.”
Joe looked up. “Who would want to kill Aggie?”
“The same person who cut out Andersen’s tongue?” she asked. “The person who shot him?” She paused. “Why did Aggie have a gun?”
Joe ignored that last part. “This is all speculation,” he said.
“Someone shot Andersen,” Olivia said. “Why was Aggie on that bike…and so late?”
“This is all too much for me,” Joe said. He stopped chopping and looked off into space.
“And Andersen took off for London out of the blue,” Olivia said.
Joe turned towards Olivia. “But he often left unexpectedly. Hannigan said so,” Joe said.
“Yeah, Andersen takes off right after Aggie is killed. And then he returns and dies the very same day. Something else must have been going on besides his work commitment.”
Joe sighed. “I’m having a beer.”
“What about chopping?” Olivia asked.
“Task master,” Joe muttered.
Olivia added spices and tomato paste to the meat and stirred to mix it together. She scooped it all from the frying pan into the large crock pot. She mixed mushrooms, spices, and tomato paste into the bulgur wheat for the vegetarian chili and poured that mixture into the smaller crock pot.
“I’d like to look into what Andersen was doing in London,” Olivia said.
Joe was sipping his beer, leaning against the island counter. “How?”
“Are you done with those peppers and onions?” Olivia asked.
Joe lifted the cutting board and divided the chopped vegetables equally between the two crock pots.
“Well, to start with, I thought I would send an email to the hotel where Andersen always stayed to confirm that he was a guest there for the four weeks.”
“They won’t tell you. Confidentiality,” Joe said.
“I’ll say I’m with the police.”
Joe’s eyes widened. “You can’t do that, for heaven’s sake. That would be impersonating a police officer.”
“Would it?” Olivia said slyly.
“Of course it would. You’d be arrested.”
Olivia was preparing a salad. She glanced at the clock. “Joe, maybe you should get started on the corn muffins.” Joe walked around the kitchen island and pulled out the mixing bowl from under the counter.
“Well, I could email the London hotel and say that I was hired by Rodney Hannigan to investigate the events of Andersen’s death,” Olivia said. “I could attach the newspaper story reporting the accident so they could see that it was legitimate.”
“So now you’re a private investigator? You need a license for that, you know.” Joe cracked two eggs into the bowl.
“I don’t intend to claim I’m a private investigator,” Olivia said. “I intend to imply.”
Joe chuckled. “Go ahead. Give it a try. I’d be surprised if they tell you anything.”
Olivia went to her laptop and sat in the kitchen chair.
“Hey,” Joe said. “Not now. We’re cooking here.”
“It’ll only take a minute.” Olivia’s fingers tapped on her keyboard. “Here’s the hotel contact information.” She did a bit more tapping. “There. Sent.”
“How’d you write that so fast?” Joe asked, adding cornmeal to the mix.
“I wrote it before I came over. I just wanted to run it by you. I changed the police part to ‘hired to investigate’ and then I sent it,” Olivia said. “If there’s any trouble, I’ll blame you since the email was sent through your wireless network connection.” She smiled.
“Thanks a lot,” Joe said.
“I’ll visit you in prison,” Olivia told him.
***
Brad arrived for dinner with a bottle of white wine, a homemade blueberry cake, and a bouquet of pink gerber daisies. They sat outside at Joe’s patio table overlooking the Marginal Way and enjoyed the chili, salad, and cornbread. They reminisced about what mischievous children Brad and Olivia used to be.
“I don’t know why I let you talk me into so much trouble,” Brad said to Olivia.
“You instigated an equal share,” Olivia protested.
“How about the time we cooked up the scheme to see how far north we could ride our bikes on Route 1?” Brad chuckled.
“Yeah,” Joe said. “Only you both forgot that you had to ride back home. I get the telephone call at nine at night to come pick you up in the truck because you were both exhausted. Never mind we’re all worried senseless.”
“What did Aggie used to say to us?” Brad said. “All brains and no sense?”
“Plenty of brains but no common sense,” Olivia clarified. They laughed.
“If the shoe fits…” Joe said.
“Hey!” Olivia playfully punched his arm.
After dinner they took out kayaks, hauled them across the lawn and launched them from the rocks in front of the house. They paddled up the Ogunquit River, which wound around behind the beach. The sun was setting and it cast a red, pink, and violet glow across the sky and sand. A few people walked the beach, flew kites, and rode flotation devices in the river’s current. The air was dry and comfortable. When they returned from kayaking, they made a fire in Joe’s pit and sat in the Adirondack chairs munching Brad’s blueberry cake with whipped cream.
“Ahhh, this is delicious, Brad,” Olivia said, closing her eyes in delight after shoveling in another forkful.
“Brad, you’re welcome to bring dessert over any night,” Joe said.
“This has been one of the bookstore’s most popular desserts,” Brad told them. “It’s a modified version of my mom’s.”
“Do you make all the desserts you serve in the bookstore?” Olivia asked.
“Oh, no, I order most of them from the bakeries in town. Occasionally I’ll bake something to serve. I enjoy baking, but I just don’t have the time to provide everything we need. It’s a heck of a lot of work running the business. This is my first night off,” Brad said. “In fact, I’m going to give the store a call to see if everything’s okay. Excuse me a minute. Be right back.” Brad got up and walked closer to the house to make his call.
“It’s nice to have Brad around again,” Joe said, leaning back in his chair. “He’s a lot of fun. Great guy.”
Olivia nodded as she licked the last crumbs and a smudge of cream off her plate.
“Nice manners, Liv,” Joe said. “There’s plenty of cake, you know. You don’t have to get every last crumb.”
“Waste not, want not,” Olivia said with a laugh, tossing one of Joe’s favorite sayings back at him.
“Liv, would you like another piece?” Brad asked as he came back to the fire pit.
She looked up with a sheepish grin. Brad touched his nose, indicating that Olivia had a dot of cream on the end of her nose. She wiped it off with her napkin.
“I can’t believe we have to go to that gala this weekend,” Joe grumbled.
“Maybe it will be a good time,” Brad offered.
“I’m kind of looking forward to getting dressed up,” Olivia said.
“You? Want to get dressed up?” Joe asked in mock surprise.
Olivia made a face at him and said, “Well it’s not often I get to wear a gown.”
“You have a gown?” Joe asked.
“Joe!” Olivia said. “Did you think I was going in jeans? Aggie has gowns from all of the events she had to attend for the college and the charity things she went to. I found a pretty one in the closet that fits me. I just had to buy some shoes.”
She took a sip of her coffee. “I just wish the gala was somewhere else. It will be very awkward to see Alexei again.”
“We’ll be with you, Liv. We’ll act as buffers,” Brad said. “I am looking forward to seeing the Siderovs’ place, though. So many people in town talk about the renovations and addition. I bet there’ll be a huge turnout just because of the curiosity factor.”
“Construction buddy of mine, Mike Sullivan, was telling a group of us about the addition,” Joe told them. “He got called in for a day to do some masonry after one of the regular workers got hurt. Sounds like no expense was spared. Everything is the best that money can buy. Siderov wants things a certain way, too. Mike said one of the guys told him that they had to pull walls down and redo them because one tiny thing was off. He said Siderov has a massive temper. Everybody’s afraid of the guy.”
“Sounds like a real jerk,” Olivia said, rolling her eyes. “Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” she added, referring to Alexei.
“Time for me to retire to my bed,” Joe said, yawning. “Stay as long as you want. Put the fire out before you leave.” He got up from his chair, kissed Olivia on the head and patted Brad on the shoulder. “Goodnight, you two.”
“Goodnight, Joe,” Olivia and Brad replied.
“I can’t stay long. I’m up early tomorrow. But how about a glass of wine before I go?” Brad asked.
Olivia said, “Okay, sure.” She was eating her second piece of blueberry cake. “I don’t drink very much but one glass of wine would be good.”
“Good thing you don’t drink like you eat,” Brad teased.
Olivia made a face at him. “I enjoy good food, but alcohol…well, you know how I feel about that.”
Brad nodded while struggling to open the wine. When Olivia was a year old, her mom, dad - who was Aggie’s brother - Aggie and Aggie’s husband were returning from a Fourth of July outing to a lake where they enjoyed a day of swimming, games, and a picnic lunch. It was two o’clock in the afternoon, heading south on Route 495 on their way back to Boston, when the nineteen-year-old drunk driver fell asleep at the wheel, lost control of the car, hit two cars, crossed into the middle lane and plowed into Olivia’s father’s car. Olivia’s dad and Aggie’s husband were in the front seats and were killed instantly. Aggie, Olivia’s mom Suzanne, and Olivia, strapped into a car seat, were in the back. Suzanne died of massive head injuries two hours later in Massachusetts General Hospital after being air-lifted there. Aggie was eight months pregnant with her first child, a baby boy, who arrived stillborn four hours after the accident. Olivia had some cuts from flying glass, but other than that she was unhurt.
Four people killed. Six people’s lives changed or ended from an accident caused by a drunk at two o’clock in the afternoon. The kid was convicted of involuntary manslaughter but because of Aggie’s appearance in court pleading leniency for the young man, he was ordered to perform one hundred hours of community service and take part in an alcohol education training class. He also lost his license for a year. Aggie believed in forgiveness.
Aggie became Olivia’s legal guardian and never re-married. When Olivia was eighteen, Aggie told her that if she hadn’t had her to care for and love, she would have crawled into a hole and never come out. Olivia didn’t remember her parents, but she kept a picture of them on her nightstand. Aggie had been a public defender before the accident, but afterward she decided to teach at Boston College law school so that she would have a more flexible schedule to be able to get home earlier to their apartment in Cambridge. The Ogunquit house had belonged to Aggie’s in-laws and because her husband died in the accident and there were no other living relatives, the house went to Aggie. Aggie and Olivia lived at the Ogunquit house all summer long, at Christmas, during spring breaks, and for many weekends each year. And that’s how Joe entered their lives.
“Here, Liv,” Brad said, handing her a glass of wine. They clinked their glasses together. “To happy, healthy days,” Brad said. They watched people walking on the Marginal Way and the fireflies appearing and disappearing in the growing darkness.
“I’m not working on Wednesday. Interested in a bike ride?” Brad asked.
“Should we see how far north we can ride before we have to call Joe to come get us?” Olivia said.
“I’d like to see his face if we did that again,” Brad chuckled. He took a sip of his wine. “It’s nice to be back in Ogunquit.”
“How did you decide to come back here, Brad?”
“I looked at places up and down the California coast but nothing suited. When I thought about where I really wanted to be, the answer was here. Even though I only came here for summers as a kid, it seems like this is where I belong.”
“Yeah, I feel the same way,” Olivia said. “Your whole family is still in California?”
“Yeah. So I have a good place to visit in the winter.” Brad smiled.
“How’s the store doing? Are things going well so far?”
“Things are going better than I had hoped,” Brad said.
They sat quietly looking at the stars.
“I’m glad you’re still here, Liv,” Brad said. “And Joe, too. You both make me feel like home.”
Olivia’s heart filled with warmth. “I’m glad you’re back.” She smiled. “I need someone I can get into trouble with.”
Brad leaned forward in his chair. “Liv, remember that day we both leaped off the jumping rock, but the tide was too low and we hit the smaller rocks?”
“Yeah, you had twelve stitches and I had ten. All the stupid things we did and still survived.”
“No wonder Aggie said we had no sense,” Brad laughed. “Thank God for you, Liv. My summers would have been so dull if you weren’t with me. My sisters would never have done the crazy things we did.”
Olivia chuckled.
After a few minutes Brad said, “Joe told me you had a tough time last fall.”
Olivia sighed. “Yes, I did. Very unexpected. Really, that guy broke my heart, which actually hurt more than the gunshot. I’ll tell you about it another time. It’s a story for another day.” Olivia had met a Boston University graduate student during the fall semester of her senior year. He was handsome and athletic and he was intent on dating her. He lavished her with attention, took her out every weekend in his red Porsche, and talked about how he wanted her in his future. She fell for him. Turned out he was a master manipulator who had lied about everything. He had claimed to have completed an undergraduate degree at MIT, published papers in academic journals, and achieved perfect 800s on his SATs. All of it was made up.
He also had married a young woman in Vermont the year before he started his graduate work at BU and promptly took off on her. The wife found out where he was, tailed him when he dated Olivia, and decided to put an end to his antics. She shot him in the head, killing him instantly - which wasn’t her plan. She would have preferred that he suffer before taking his last breath. She shot Olivia too but the bullet only grazed her shoulder. Olivia lay on the sidewalk bleeding, pretending to be dead. As the wife stood over Olivia, aiming to put a bullet into her head, Olivia raised her leg and slammed it into the woman’s kneecap, knocking her to the ground.
The woman got life in prison with no chance for parole. Olivia later found out that while her Romeo had been dating her, he had also been busy with a good number of other girls on campus. So much for falling in love.
Olivia balanced her wine glass on the arm of her chair. “What about you, Brad? Are you seeing someone?”
Brad shook his head. “Not any more. I dated the same girl for the last two years of college, but we split up.”
“Grew apart?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Brad said. “She cheated on me.”
“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” Olivia said. “At least you didn’t get shot.”
Brad almost choked on his swallow of wine. “You should write a book, Liv.”
“But there would be too much bad stuff in it.”
/> “That’s why it would sell,” Brad told her. “Listen, I’m sorry about that accident the other night. Joe told me you were the first one there.”
Olivia filled him in on the details of what had happened the other night and how Martin Andersen said “red Julie” to her. She told him about the mysterious guy that showed up at the accident, the necklace in her pocket, the fake cop that came to her house, her suspicions about Aggie’s death and the gun in her house.
“What?” Brad asked. “This is ridiculous. How could all of that have happened?”
“Unfortunately, it did. And it’s not over.” She paused in thought. “Brad, I need to figure out what ‘red Julie’ means. How all of these things connect together.”
“I think you should let the police handle it,” Brad said.
Olivia gave him a serious look. “Aggie didn’t die of a heart attack. I know it. But I’m the only one who thinks so. I can’t leave it to the police.”
“Liv…”
“I just can’t.” Olivia leaned forward. “Aggie was riding my bike, late at night, in the dark.” Olivia’s forehead was furrowed. “Why? Why would she do that? She never rode a bike.
“Maybe she needed something from the store?” Brad offered.
“She would have walked. Or taken the car. Not the damn bike.” Olivia slumped in the chair for several seconds then her eyes widened and she leaned towards Brad. “Maybe she was trying to get away from something. Someone.”
Olivia’s thoughts tumbled out. “Maybe she was trying to get away quietly. Without being seen. Maybe she couldn’t get to the car. Walking would be too slow. So she took the bike from the shed.”
Brad thought it over. “Maybe. But who? Who was she trying to get away from? Who’d be after her?”
“That’s what I need to figure out,” Olivia said. “But I need help.” She held Brad’s eyes.
Brad sighed. “Sounds like you’re about to drag me into this mess.”
Olivia’s face brightened.
“Why do I let you talk me into these things?” he said, shaking his head.
Chapter 10
After Brad left, Olivia sat at her kitchen table reading her emails and searching the internet. There was an email from Martin Andersen’s secretary replying to Olivia’s request to meet. She would be in the office on Friday before noon if that would be a convenient time for Olivia. Olivia tapped out her response, agreeing to meet at the end of the week. The cross necklace was on the table next to her laptop. She checked eBay for anything that might look similar but found nothing. She Googled ‘gold cross necklace diamonds’ and got thousands of hits of items for sale. None of the necklaces looked like the one in her possession. She picked up the gold cross and brought it close to her eye to inspect the elaborate workings of the piece. It was two inches in length with the sunburst extending out an inch around the center. It was heavy and looked old. Olivia wished that Aggie was there to give her opinion about it. Why did you give this to me, Martin? What am I supposed to do with it?
