A few minutes later, Cordelia added, “the Beeline ends at this curve and becomes part of Interstate 95. We want to take the exit for Merritt Island. We’ll cross the Indian River to get to Merritt Island then we cross the Banana River to Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach.” Cordelia looked in the mirror as they left the Beeline. “Dear, have you noticed the car behind us?”
“No. Why?” Suzette glanced in the mirror. “It doesn’t look familiar.”
“Well, every time I’ve looked behind us, that same car has been there. You know, I have really good vision. I’d swear that the man driving is the man who seemed to be watching us in the airport.”
“That does seem strange but lots of people visit Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach.”
“I don’t like it. So many strange things have been happening–this is just one more.”
Suzette laughed, “Now don’t get paranoid on me. Let’s think this through. If someone is following us, who could it be? Did anyone know I was coming?”
“Everyone knew you were coming because I gave orders that a room be prepared for you, but no one knew you were coming, if you get my meaning.”
Suzette looked at Cordelia. “Could you find a way to get the license plate number of the car that is following us without turning around? It might be a good idea to find out who the car is registered to without letting them or him know what we’re doing.”
Beaming, Cordelia said, “Sure, Holmes. I’ll try using my compact mirror.”
“Do that, Watson,” Suzette said with a grin.
Cordelia turned her mirror this way and that. “He’s too far back for this small mirror to pick it up.”
“Okay, release your seatbelt and pretend you’re reaching over the seat for something. That way you might be able to see the license plate.”
Casually, Cordelia did as she was instructed. “It’s an Orange County plate, I think. The letters are ADC. I think the numbers are 810.”
“Great. Now, I’m going to slow down and pull off the road. He should pass us so look at the license plate again to make sure of the numbers. Once he passes us, we’ll pull back on. If he is following us, he’ll pull off onto a side road or exit then get back on behind us. Since I need to watch the road, you watch for him.”
“Will do,” Cordelia said as she fastened her seatbelt.
Suddenly, Suzette switched on her turn signal and pulled off the road. The car behind her swerved as he pulled around her.
“That’s the man I saw in the airport. I’m sure of it,” Cordelia said fervently. “You know, the one who kept staring at you.”
“All I saw was the back of his head, so I couldn’t tell you if it’s someone I know. We’ll just have to keep watch now, in case he pulls back in behind us.”
Fifteen minutes later, Cordelia said, “it’s the next left turn.”
“Have you seen that car?”
“No, but he could still be behind us. We’ve picked up so much traffic now that it’s hard to tell what’s more than two cars behind us.”
“Well, we won’t worry about it since we have the license number of the car,” Suzette said blithely as she rolled down her window and breathed in the warm, humid air.
Grimly smiling, the man in the car three car lengths behind them pulled into the left turn lane behind another car. “She’s good,” he said to himself. “But she’s not as good as she thinks she is.”
Chapter 8
“Go straight down this street until you reach the T-road. Then turn left.”
Suzette followed instructions. After she turned left, the houses thinned out and she could see the ocean between the trees.
“Turn right into the next drive.” Cordelia was fairly beaming. “I know you are going to love my home. It’s the best home in the world–so cozy and comfortable.”
Suzette followed the winding drive through the trees. Suddenly the house burst into view. Instinctively, Suzette put her foot on the brake. The house was huge. There was a four story central section with long, three story wings. There were six columns holding up the roof of a huge porch. Two steps led up to the double front door. Suzette could see a huge chandelier through the arched windows above the door. The whole house was painted a pale pinky-peach with a peachy cream trim.
Cordelia looked at Suzette. “What do you think of it?”
“Well, the first word that comes to mind is incredible. The second is gorgeous. But Cordelia, I’d hardly call it cozy. You must have very big ideas.”
“Oh, my child, you have no idea how I’d like a small, cozy house, but I inherited this house and I’ll die here. Sometimes I dream of a small house so I wouldn’t have room for all of these cantankerous relatives I’m saddled with.”
Suzette pulled up in front of the front door. The door flew open and an elderly, Irish woman rushed down the stairs. “Miss Cordelia, Miss Cordelia, I’m glad you are here. I wish you wouldn’t run off like that.”
“What’s wrong, Lizzy?” Cordelia paused, then whispered “Lizzy, I want you to meet Suzette Bishop. Jeremy hired her to deal with the mess we’ve got here.”
Lizzy dropped a swift, absent-minded curtsey, then turned to her mistress. “Miss Cordelia, Derek and Dorothea just fired Sean. When I told them they didn’t have the right to fire him, they fired me.” She drew herself up to her full 50 inches and added, “But I told them that if they fired me, I’d work for you for free.”
For a minute, Cordelia looked all of her 73 years.
Suzette looked from Lizzy to Cordelia. “But do you want him fired?”
“Of course not. Sean’s worked for me as long as Lizzy has, but I don’t know if I’m up to fighting both Derek and Dorothea. I just haven’t felt myself since I fell the night of the fire. All this confusion about Jeanette’s death hasn’t helped me, either.”
Jeremy didn’t tell me about that,” Suzette said softly.
“I didn’t tell him. I didn’t want him throwing up his cases and coming down here to take care of me, although he can handle them when I can’t.”
Suzette gave a rich chuckle, pretending to roll up her sleeves. “Well, I can. I told Jeremy I’d watch out for your interests so leave the rest to me, but I want to come across as sweet rather than businesslike. What they don’t know about me could play in our favor.”
Cordelia looked sideways at Suzette. “Jeremy told me that you could be very formidable when you needed to be. I’m looking forward to the fight of the century.”
Suzette followed Cordelia and Lizzy into the house. Cordelia turned to Lizzy. “Where is everyone?”
“They are in the summer living room.” She led the way, opening the door for them.
“And where is Sean?” Cordelia asked, her lip trembling.
“I think he’s in his room packing. I tried to get him to wait until you came home, but his Irish temper flared and he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Please send him to us in the summer living room,” Cordelia said.
Cordelia turned and headed toward the back of the house as Suzette followed. She stepped through the open door. A young girl who looked a little like Jeremy and who Suzette thought must be Hallie was crying in the corner of the room. A tall, rather heavy set woman and a man who looked enough like her to be her son were standing by the window, arguing angrily.
They all turned when Cordelia entered the room. As Halle surged forward, Dorothea had the grace to look a little embarrassed but the expression lasted only a micro-second.
Hallie said, “I tried to stop them, Aunt, but they wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Cordelia, I’m sure that Lizzy went blabbing to you. I fired Sean. He got very insubordinate and refused to apologize when I demanded it so I let him go,” Dorothea’s tone was harsh and aggressive.
Suzette folded her arms. Pretending to be bewildered, she looked at Cordelia, “but I thought Sean worked for you, Cordelia.”
“He does–or rather he did.”
“Then what right does she have to fire your servant? It sounds to
me like a bunch of officious meddling. Jeremy isn’t going to like this at all.”
“She doesn’t have the right, love, but she takes a lot of rights that she doesn’t have and so does her son.”
“Really?” Dorothea’s tone of voice would have taken the hide off an elephant.
Still keeping her tone sweet and light, Suzette asked, “But why do you let them?”
“Because they badger me until I’m too tired to resist any longer.” Cordelia sighed, talking to Suzette as though neither Derek nor Dorothea could hear her. “I try to stand up to them, but they are like a steam roller, big and blunt and immovable.”
Suzette looked Dorothea up and down, then did the same to Derek. “I don’t think that should happen. You’re too nice for your own good. I think they should try badgering me.”
“And who the hell do you think you are?” Derek snarled.
Sweetly, Suzette said, “I’m an old friend of Jeremy’s. He asked me to see what I could do to straighten out Cordelia’s problems. It seems like this is the first one that needs to be straightened out.”
Derek actually went white when he heard Jeremy’s name. “Mother, maybe, we were a little too hard on Sean.”
“I don’t think so,” Dorothea said grimly. “He was out of line.”
Suzette’s voice was steely soft as she said, “I’m sure that Jeremy would say that he wouldn’t care if Sean was dancing naked on the dining room table during lunch--you do not have the right nor the authority to fire Cordelia’s servants.” She looked at Cordelia, who looked close to tears. “I believe the proper course would be to tell her about the problem and ask her to speak to Sean.”
“Mother, I think we’d better have a conference.” He took Dorothea’s arm and practically dragged her on to the porch. Suzette could pretty much tell what was being said even though their voices were very soft. Derek was trying to convince her to back down, but from the looks of her face she wasn’t being convinced. Finally, her face softened, she nodded, and then they walked back into the room just as Sean, followed by Lizzy came through another door.
“Sean, you can’t leave,” Cordelia said, almost tearfully.
“They fire me–so I’ll be leavin.” Sean ran his fingers through his red hair. “I will not be ordered around by them. They do not pay me, but they order me around. They be wanten’ me to do many things for them that I do not want to do–that are not part of my job. For you, I’ll do anything, but not for them.”
“But Sean--”
“I won’t follow their orders, so now they fired me so I’ll leaven’.”
“Nonsense,” Suzette said, reasonably. “You don’t really want to leave Cordelia. They’ve hurt your feelings, but think for a minute. Did Cordelia do anything to hurt you?”
“No, she g-r-reat lady.” His Irish brogue was very strong.
“I agree. Then why are you punishing her because she’s too nice to give her mooching sister and nephew their marching orders?”
“I--”
“Sean, it would break my heart if you left. We’ve been together since I was seventeen and you were only twenty, fresh off the boat from Ireland.” Cordelia’s voice was wavering and her hands were trembling.
“I don’t want to go, but I don’t want them yelling at me. I follow little Cordelia’s orders, then they get angry. They think I work for them.”
“Well, if it’s either them or you, I’ll go call Jeremy,” Suzette said. “Then they can go pack.”
Derek grabbed her arm. “Hey, wait a minute--”
Roughly, she broke his hold, causing him to wince and rub his hand. Ignoring his comment she looked directly at him. “If she lets you stay, then you leave the servants alone. I know she doesn’t want to break up the family.” She turned to Sean, “and from what she told me on the way here, both you and Lizzy are family.”
Dorothea looked at Derek who nodded, then clearing her throat, she said, as though the words were acid burning her throat. “Sean, Derek and I were wrong. We are sorry we fired you. Please stay. We won’t give you any more orders.”
“Okay, I’ll be stayin’ for now.”.” There was a threat in his tone of voice.
Hallie who had been standing frozen in the center of the room rushed forward, smiling through her tears. “If you’re a friend of Jeremy’s then you will know how to help us. Did he ask you to do something about my mother’s body? You see, they won’t release her so we can bury her. It’s not right that we can’t bury her.” Her voice broke as tears gushed from her eyes.
Gently, Suzette took her hand. “I’ll do the very best I can to get things moving. If I have to, I’ll have Jeremy get an attorney from here to bring the case before a judge.”
Hallie said, “I keep thinking about her in one of those drawers, all naked. She would have hated being naked.”
Her voice was so filled with grief that Suzette didn’t know what to say.
Finally, Hallie got control of herself. “Aunt Cordelia, Julie wanted me to tell you she’d be arriving this evening. She’ll get a ride out from the airport with some friends of mine from the university. They’re studying sea turtles, too. Do you think they could stay with us for a few days?”
Dorothea said, “Nonsense. I have Dr. Lin and his niece coming down to finish up the preliminaries on the actual exploration for the Spanish Galleon. They will arrive tonight.”
“Well,” Cordelia said, “Since there are 25 principle bedrooms in this house, I should think that we would be able to find a room for them. If not, I’m sure we can find a broom closet where they can sleep.”
Turning to Suzette, Cordelia said, “Darling Suzette, let me take you upstairs to your room.”
Suzette fished her keys out of her purse. “I’ll get my luggage.”
“That’s m3 job,” Sean said, reaching for the keys. “I will bring up your suitcases.”
“Okay, thanks,” Suzette said as she handed them to him.
“I’ve put you in the sea room,” Cordelia said as she led the way up the stairs, a small, trim figure with wild grey hair. They walked down the long hall. She stopped at a door that had been painted a pale cream, marbled with grey and blue.
Suddenly, Cordelia turned and threw her arms around Suzette. “Thank you so much. I wish I had your courage. I am so tired of them. I wish you would have told them to leave.”
“I know you wanted them gone, but I think it would be a good idea to keep them around until we know more of what is going on. I’ve learned from hard experience how difficult it is to question people when you can’t find them. If they’re here, we have a captive audience.”
“I understand, but I still don’t like it.” Cordelia whispered.
“Once I’ve got things figured out and we have the criminals behind bars, I’ll get rid of them for you. That’s a promise.”
Cordelia nodded, “I’ll hold you to that promise.” She turned and opened the door.
As Suzette stepped inside she couldn’t repress a gasp. “This is the most beautiful room I have ever seen.”
The room was painted a soft blue green. Dark blue green drapes framed views of the ocean and the big sliding glass doors that opened out onto a white balcony. The bedspread matched the drapes. The furniture was grouped around the open balcony door. The sofa and chairs were upholstered in several shades of blue green with mauve and white accents and mauve pillows. The pictures on the walls were by a famous artist and depicted life under the sea. Even the fresh flowers in crystal vases scattered around the room matched the decor.
“I’m glad you like it. This is my favorite guest room. It’s also right next to my room. We share this balcony.”
Suzette walked out on to the balcony. It was furnished like an outdoor living room. The white wicker furniture had bright, flowered print cushions and pillows. The glass top tables held flowers, books and a thermos.
Suzette noticed that there was a stairway that went down from the balcony to the elevated boardwalk that crossed the weeds and scrub oak that border
ed the pale, cocoa colored beach.
“Dear, I want to warn you about the lawns and the scrub down there. Anything green is loaded with Chiggers, Mosquitos and no-see-ums. If you step on the lawn or get into that scrub you’ll get eaten alive. I have some high powered insect repellant you can use. I put a can in your bathroom so you really don’t want to go anywhere without it. Those chiggers raise some really nasty welts.” She was quiet for a few minutes as they both looked out over the water. Then she said, “I hope you like the view of the ocean.”
“I love looking at water. That’s one of the reasons why I live in San Francisco, but I have to admit that the Atlantic Ocean is much prettier at this time of year than the Bay is.” Suzette turned to look at her hostess. “Do you think its warm enough to go wading?”
“Of course it is. Why don’t you change into shorts and I’ll do the same. We have about an hour before dinner.”
“All right!” Suzette exclaimed as she turned back to her room. Billy had unlocked her suitcases and a small, Spanish looking maid was unpacking them.
Cordelia said from the doorway, “Suzette, this is Maria. She is a Cuban refugee, but don’t worry, she is over here legally. The INS won’t be carrying her away anytime soon. She’ll be waiting on you and taking care of your clothes. If you need anything don’t hesitate to ring for her.”
Cordelia turned to the woman who was unpacking. “Maria, this is Suzette. She is a friend of Jeremy’s.”
“I am pleased to meet you, senorita. Mr. Jeremy has been very good to me. He has given me money to send to my child in Cuba. Someday, after I citizen, he say, he help me bring my child here. But, is very hard to be a citizen. I study much but English difficult.”
Suzette smiled, “perhaps, if Cordelia doesn’t mind, I could help you with English and you could help me with my Spanish.”
“Si, senorita, I would like that. I have much desire to become citizen soon, so I can bring over my daughter.”
Sun, Sand and Murder: A Suzette Bishop Mystery (Suzette Bishop Mysteries Book 3) Page 5
