Murder in Hum Harbour

by Jayne E. Self

  The showcases’ glass had been smashed and my jewelry tossed in every direction. Worse, however, were Halbert Borgdenburger’s beautiful, one of a kind vases. Shattered. Shards of scarlet and amber glass everywhere.

  I ran to the bathroom and vomited. Then I called the police.

  Andrew came with sirens blazing.

  The lunch crowd from the Hubris Heron stuck their heads out to see all the excitement.

  Andrew shooshed them away.

  Lori abandoned scraping the Lori-Girl and hurried over; he let her stay.

  “Convenient,” is what Andrew said as he stood in the middle of Dunmaglass surveying the damage. “Coincidental, too, don’t you think?”

  I sat on the stairs, my head between my knees. I wanted to wail. “What am I going to do?”

  “Insurance will cover your losses, Gailynn.” Despite her impatient tone, Lori’s arm around my shoulders warmed me.

  “But what will Halbert say when he sees what’s happened to his vases? He’ll never let me show any of his work again. And Helena will take her panels home and I’ll have nothing but my jewelry.”

  “They’re only a couple of vases, Gai,” said my brother.

  “Only? Do you have any idea how much they cost?”

  “A lot?”

  “Twelve hundred each!” I wrapped my arms around my head and moaned. “Who could do such a thing?”

  Andrew had his flip pad in hand and was scribbling madly. “Who do you think?”

  “A monster. A philistine. A vicious hoodlum who has no appreciation of art.”

  “Anyone in particular come to mind? Anyone who might want to hurt you?” Andrew asked.

  “Sam, Ross, Mike, take your pick.” The names popped out of my mouth before I had a chance to censor them.

  Andrew latched onto the list. “What makes you think they would do anything like this?”

  I explained about last night and Sheba and how Geoff had saved her from certain death.

  Lori’s brows formed a deep V. “I don’t suppose Geoff had any reason to poison your cat himself. There’d be nothing to gain, except maybe your undying trust when he just happened to be around to save her.”

  Both Andrew and Lori ignored my indignant gasp.

  “Not worth the trouble,” said Andrew. “But poisoning the cat so someone could break into Gailynn’s shop might.”

  “You think the two are connected?” I asked.

  “Too convenient for them not to.”

  “But why?”

  “Let’s talk about the three you mentioned. What have you been up to that would make you think Sam, Ross, or Mike would do this?”

  “Sam’s mad at me because he thinks I’m meddling.”

  Lori looked me up and down. “Are you?”

  “Whose side are you on?”

  “Both of yours. I want to find out who did this as much as you do. You’re my friend, Gailynn, and I don’t like you getting hurt.”

  Andrew nodded. “For now, at least, whoever is doing this is just using scare tactics. They’re giving you warning, Gailynn. Stay out.”

  “Stay out of what?”

  “What are you meddling in most?”

  I did not meddle.

  “I told you to keep your nose out of the police investigation into Doc’s death. Are you?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “OK, what did you do yesterday when Lori, Geoff and I were talking?”

  “I went to see Vi,” I said reluctantly.

  “About?”

  I shook my head. “It’s too complicated to explain.”

  “Try me.”

  Lori’s bandages scratched when she squeezed my hand. Sanding her dad’s boat was wreaking havoc on her knuckles and palms. At this rate, by summer’s end she’d be applying for skin grafts.

  “Go ahead. Tell him,” she said.

  I stared at my feet for a full minute trying to word my statement in the least incriminating way possible. I wasn’t having much luck.

  “Rickie came by and bought one of Halberd’s vases for flowers for Doc’s funeral and she happened to mention that she and Ross are having a cash flow problem. I guess Ross is really the one having the problem although it affects Rickie, too, because she likes to invest his cash—”

  “Gai.”

  “Well, then Ross got mad at me because I’d invited Rickie for tea when I was just trying to be nice because she’s very lonely.” I added, “She’s actually a nice kid, Lori, and I thought we could invite her along next time you, Sash and I have a girl’s night out—”

  “Gailynn.” Andrew said my full name louder, as if I’d not heard him last time.

  “Ross got mad at me because he thought I’d invited Rickie over to milk her for information about him and, isn’t that just like Ross to think everything’s all about him? I admit I felt bad, and in a way he was half right because I did find out about them being strapped, but he told me that wasn’t true and that got me to wondering which one of them was telling me the truth.”

  Deep breath.

  “So I went to Vi because Vi knows everything about Ross and she told me yes Ross is in a financial pickle because he’s lost all his money gambling and he had to sell Murray Enterprises and he needs Hum Harbour Holes to make money so he can go back to buying Rickie real diamonds instead of fake ones.”

  “Rickie’s rocks are fake?” asked Lori.

  “Apparently the one Vi stole off Rickie the other day at the florists is fake because Vi didn’t get anything for it when she tried to pawn it to pay for Ross Junior’s summer camp.”

  “Hold it. Vi stole Rickie Murray’s diamonds?”

  Lori and I nodded.

  Andrew reviewed his note pad. “So let me capsulize this. Sam is mad at you for meddling in his marriage and Ross Murray is mad at you for meddling in his marriage.”

  “I don’t meddle.”

  “How about Mike?”

  “I don’t think Mike’s mad at me.”

  “You said Mike.”

  “Yes but when I think about it, Mike didn’t seem upset at all that Geoff and I spent the afternoon following him. I think he thought it was rather funny and as long as we don’t tell Mimi what he was up to, I don’t think he cares one way or the other.”

  “You spent the afternoon following Mike?”

  “Geoff has this idea that the men around town just come and go as they please without concern for kith or kin and it struck me he’s got a point. So I thought if we followed Mike and saw what he was up to maybe there might be a connection to Doc. You know, like a secret worth killing for.”

  Andrew slammed his little book shut. “Gailynn, you have got to be kidding.”

  “No.”

  He massaged his brow as though he had a splitting headache. “You can’t keep doing this. Tell her, Lori.”

  “Gailynn, you can’t keep doing this.”

  I pushed her arm off my shoulder. “You always side with Andrew.”

  “I do not.”

  Andrew interrupted us. “Let’s get back to the break in. Geoff was with you at the vets so we can eliminate him as a suspect. I’ll check alibis for Sam, Ross and Mike.”

  “It could have been kids,” said Lori, though I could tell from her rigid shoulders that she was miffed about me being with Geoff.

  “Maybe you should dust for prints,” I said to Andrew.

  “How many people have been in and out of Dunmaglass since the last time you wiped down your cabinets?”

  “I dust every morning before I open the shop.”

  “I mean wipe down with soapy water.”

  I sheepishly admitted at least a week.

  “Then I really don’t see much point in checking prints. Half Hum Harbour will have spread their finger marks through this space.”

  Lori said, “How about the vases? Hardly anyone handles them.”

  Andrew surveyed the carnage on the floor. “This isn’t CSI you know. I collect all the little bits, send them to the provincial lab and next year so
me time when it’s quiet someone might get around to examining these pieces of glass.”

  I almost started crying all over again. “You have to send them to Halifax?”

  “You think I have a lab set up in the coat closet at the station?”

  “I just sweep it all up and that’s it?”

  “I’ll take photos and fill in a report. You forward a copy to your insurance company but yeah, Gai, that’s it.”

  “Except for Andrew’s lecture,” said Lori.

  ****

  Andrew and Lori left me cleaning up the mess. I wept as I swept. How could anyone do this to me?

  Although I’d told Andrew I thought Sam, Ross or Mike were responsible for the break-in, I had a hard time believing it. I simply could not get my head around the evidence before me. Someone was out to get me, Gailynn Elizabeth MacDonald. Why?

  Was I getting so close to someone’s secret that I made them nervous? I surveyed the room. This was more than nervous. Nervous people had eating disorders. They spread gossip. They made anonymous phone calls or slipped nasty letters under your door. They didn’t break into your shop, poison your cat and trash thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

  Was I getting close enough to the truth to warrant this kind of a warning? No more “Mind your own business, Gailynn.” No more “Go away or else.” No, whoever was responsible had decided to move beyond words. He was acting.

  Which begged the question: whose secret was I closing in on?

  Sam? Was there some deeper issue between Sam and Sasha that my brother did not want me messing with? Did Sam have a secret even Sasha didn’t know about, and Sam was afraid I’d uncover it and tell? Would my own brother poison my cat?

  Or Ross? Ross needed money. To me that might be nothing more than a curious bit of news, but for Ross, was it a secret worth fighting for? Did his financial difficulties have bigger implications than I could understand? Were compulsive gambling and womanizing his only vices?

  Then there was Mike. What if that GPS treasure hunt thingy was a smoke screen? What if he was involved in drug smuggling or something else equally illegal? How far would Mike go to protect Mimi and the kids? And speaking of Mimi, how far would she go to protect her family?

  Mimi had access to Geoff’s apartment. She could easily slip upstairs and stick something questionable in Sheba’s tuna. And she was in and out of the Hubris Heron’s back door so many times a day who would notice her checking out my back door? Who would question her if she slipped out of the restaurant for five or ten minutes to trash Dunmaglass? I stared at the pile of shattered glass. Would it even require five minutes to make this kind of mess?

  But Mimi? Was my cousin capable of this kind of destruction? Absolutely not, I told myself. Then I remembered Mimi remorselessly pulverizing poor bits of dried leaves with her mortar and pestle. OK, Mimi could smash stuff.

  Was she the culprit?

  Had I solved the mystery?

  I weighed the possibility, unsure if I should be worried or excited. I felt both at the same time and that frightened me. I should be frightened. Any intelligent person would be frightened. Why then, did I feel excited, too? A sure sign I lacked the brains God gave me, Andrew would say.

  I let the idea sit for a while, like a spicy candy melting on my tongue.

  Using my needle-nosed pliers, I cautiously extracted my jewelry from the pile of broken glass. Halbert’s vases had fractured into dangerously long slivers, and I didn’t want glass splinters under my skin. I was glad there were only three vases in the shop at the time of the break-in. At least I could give him Rickie’s twelve hundred.

  I called my insurance broker who promised to stop in before supper and assess the damages, and the glass people said they could replace the plate glass in my showcases early next week. They had the measurements on file.

  I prayed before calling Halbert Borgdenburger and that prayer, at least, was answered. Hal took the news better than I ever could have expected. He even suggested I have the paper send over a reporter and photographer to cover the story.

  “Big news,” he said. “You never know who will read about the break-in and think, ‘I’ve never been inside Dunmaglass. Maybe I should make a special trip to Hum Harbour.’”

  “You think a break-in will attract customers?”

  “Absolutely. I’ll bring by four new vases and some smaller pieces, if you’re interested, of course. When do you expect to reopen?”

  I blinked in amazement. “Next Saturday. I won’t have new glass in my showcases before then.”

  “That will be fine.”

  The Casket, Antigonish’s weekly rag, asked me not to clean up anything before their reporter photographed the shop. I said yes of course, and went to work scattering the broken pieces back across the floor.

  The mail arrived while I was mid-sweep. It included Rickie’s check with insufficient funds stamped across her childish signature. I guess that proved once and for all that the Murrays were indeed in financial trouble. Could it be Ross who trashed my shop?

  I phoned Rickie, explained the bank problem. She laughed and promised to drop off a new check. I’d never had to confront someone for non-payment before. I think I was more humiliated than Rickie.

  After that, I sat on the dryer in my storage room, awaiting the reporter. What should I do now? Keep snooping, knowing I was getting under someone’s skin, and pretend I wasn’t scared? Heed the vandal’s warning and leave Doc’s murder for Andrew the cop to solve? Invest in one of those noisy security systems and hide inside my home for the rest of my life?

  Well, God?

  This was too big a decision to make on my own. Who could I go to for advice? Scratch that, who could I go to for advice I’d listen to? That was always the problem, wasn’t it? Who would I listen to? Who could I trust to advise me honestly without the pre-assumption that I wasn’t smart enough to do what needed doing? That I wasn’t smart enough to recognize I wasn’t smart enough, should have been a clue, don’t you think?

  22

  Lori was not on the Lori-Girl. With Mom and Dad out of town I’d thought she was my best choice for wise advisor and gone looking for her as soon as the reporter/photographer—one person with two hats—left. The fishing fleet was still out. The wharf was deserted, apart from the gulls.

  Seeing that Sam’s boat was gone along with everyone else’s, I decided now was an ideal time to visit Sasha. She’d be closing the flower shop and I’d have her undivided attention.

  I hurried uphill and caught up with her as she walked home. She looked terrible.

  “Are you drinking that tea I brought you? Mimi said it would help.”

  “And Geoff’s pills. He said they’d take a few weeks to kick in. Should I have told him about the tea?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe it’ll make the pills work faster. When do you expect Sam home?”

  “Not before dark, he told me.”

  That was interesting. Sam usually came and went without telling Sasha anything. Maybe recent events had snapped him out of his careless attitude towards his wife. “Shall I keep you company?”

  I cooked Sasha a nutritious supper then, over her favorite dessert of ice cream and maple syrup, I quizzed her about Sam.

  “Do you ever wonder where he goes when he takes off without telling you?”

  Sasha’s kitchen window overlooked the harbor. She ignored the view and dug in her ice cream.

  “I mean, he told you today what time he’d be home, but that’s something new isn’t it?”

  She took a slow bite and nodded.

  “So how come the big change? Did Andrew’s arresting you scare Sam into taking better care of you?”

  “Andrew didn’t arrest me. He brought me in for questioning.”

  “But is Sam afraid Andrew might change his mind and arrest you? Is that why he’s sticking close?”

  “There’s no reason to arrest me, Gailynn.”

  “I know that, but does Sam?”

  “Yes, he knows.”

 
; She said it with such certainty I felt my eyes go wide. “Sash, are you saying my brother is guilty?”

  She looked sincerely surprised. “Sam had nothing to do with Doc’s death. Why would you think that?”

  “Sam was so angry with Doc and he was going to get away without paying the malpractice suit. Who would be surprised if Sam got drunk enough and angry enough to do something stupid?”

  “I told you, Gai, Sam wasn’t involved.”

  “Are you sure? He drinks so much. He’s acting like he’s guilty about something.”

  She pushed her ice cream away. “I know. But it’s my fault, not his.”

  “Your fault?”

  “It’s complicated, Gai. You don’t want to know all this stuff.”

  Oh yes I did. “Maybe it’ll make you feel better to talk about it.”

  “It’s been going on a long time. Sam and I haven’t been happy.”

  I knew that much. No one could watch two people they love go through the kind of heartache Sam and Sasha had been through during their ten years of marriage and not see their unhappiness.

  “The first few childless years were tough, but we both thought we’d get through them. We were young, healthy. Surely we could produce kids eventually, right?”

  I nodded.

  “After a while I got really scared, though. I mean, what if we couldn’t do it? What if I couldn’t do it?”

  I reached for her hand.

  “I tried everything I could think of, from taking my temperature ten times a day to sleeping with my feet in the air…don’t laugh.” Sasha seemed unable to meet my gaze. “I finally convinced Sam that we should try that fertility clinic in Halifax. And it worked. The doctor at the clinic warned us I might not be able to carry the baby to full term but we were riding so high. I mean, finally, at long last, I was pregnant. I knew if we just followed his list of do’s and don’ts, we would end up with a fine, healthy baby. When we came home we took their list of instructions to Doc so he could double check everything they told us.”

  “What did Doc tell you?”

  “He said their instructions were unnecessarily cautious. I was in good health. Now that I was finally pregnant there was no need for concern beyond any normal pregnancy.”