Death on Demand

by Carolyn G. Hart

  “Sure she does.” Saulter ticked it off on his fingers. “She’s broke. She inherits her uncle’s estate, including the bookshop—and you know how she feels about that bookshop. Goodbye, Uncle. The rest of them are protection. Somehow Morgan figures out she shoved Ambrose into the drink and that spelled finish for him. Plus Morgan is threatening to run her out of business with a rent she couldn’t pay. The vet is knocked off to get the medicine, and that damn Edelman busybody poked her nose into a buzz saw.”

  Max ran a hand through his hair and shook his head placidly. “Nope. You’re off base. See, if Annie wants money—or needs money—all she has to do is marry me.” His dark eyes glinted. “And, after all, Chief, that’s a lot easier than going around slugging, darting, and bludgeoning—and guaranteed to be more fun.”

  Saulter opened his mouth, and Annie knew he intended to ask tartly just how much money Max had. As his eyes moved from Max to the window with the red Porsche in view, he abruptly closed his mouth.

  “I intend neither to kill for money—nor marry for money,” Annie said acidly. Her counselor was finding this altogether too amusing for her taste.

  “You never told anybody here on Broward’s Rock about this fellow?”

  “No, but—”

  “Annie, tell the man truly. Could you marry me anytime you want to?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “So no motive.” Resting his case, Max lifted his hands, palms upward. Annie glared.

  “If you two can direct your minds back to the murders, and away from me, we might get somewhere. Chief, we believe the same person who killed Elliot murdered my uncle. Somebody has stolen his manuscript.”

  Saulter stiffened like a dog on point. “His book about the murderers who got away with it?”

  For the first time since the lights went out in Death On Demand, Annie felt a glimmer of hope. Saulter knew about Uncle Ambrose’s book. Surely he would understand the implications of a missing manuscript. She longed irrationally to present him with a copy of The Bay Psalm Murder.

  “Exactly. Max and I figure that he found out about a crime involving somebody here on the island and—”

  “Naw. I’d talked to Ambrose about his murders. He was interested in the Armbruster case.” Saulter’s forehead wrinkled. “And the Vinson suicide, so-called. And he mentioned the Winningham thing.” The sudden flash of interest in those agate eyes faded. “None of that has a thing to do with anybody here. That’s a false trail.”

  “The manuscript is missing.”

  “Sure.” He might as well have said, “Good try.”

  “Look, Chief, you aren’t going to pin this on me. If you won’t help, I guess Max and I will have to find the murderer by ourselves. But you can at least listen to what we’ve discovered—”

  Max was semaphoring messages with his eyebrows, but she was too angry to pay any attention.

  “To begin with, Emma Clyde, Hal Douglas, and Jeff and Janis Farley all had terrific motives to get rid of Elliot.”

  “Is that so?” Saulter’s tone wasn’t encouraging, and Annie knew he was thinking in particular of Emma Clyde’s considerable wealth and power. A leading citizen like Emma could do a lot to influence next year’s elections.

  “That is so. Emma Clyde killed her second husband. She pushed him off her boat and let him drown. And Hal Douglas killed hs wife and buried her in the mountains in California, and—”

  “Young lady!” Saulter boomed.

  “Annie, my God!” Max cried.

  She raised her voice resolutely: “And Jeff Farley beats his wife.”

  Saulter’s palm thumped on his desk and the in-box slewed sideways. In the silence that followed, he scrutinized Annie with chilly contempt.

  “Just how do you know all this, Ms. Laurance?”

  Abruptly, Annie understood Max’s semaphore. Oh, what an incredibly appropriate word “dumbstruck” is. She stared at Saulter. She wished she’d been born a deaf-mute. No, look what happened in The Spiral Staircase.

  “Come now, Ms. Laurance, you’re helping us quite a lot. But how do you know this?”

  Annie picked words as carefully as footfalls on a canyon ledge.

  “I keep telling you. Elliot Morgan had his big scene all planned, and everyone knew it was coming. Sunday night he was going to tell about a lot of very unpleasant things that people didn’t want known.” She described Elliot’s planned book. “You see, the things he was going to talk about were criminal activities.”

  For the first time, she had Saulter’s attention. “Criminal activities by all these people?” Saulter leaned forward. If he had been a dog, his nose would have twitched.

  “The people who were at your bookstore—Mr. and Mrs. Farley, Emma Clyde, Hal Douglas, Kelly Rizzoli, Capt. McElroy, Harriet Edelman, Fritz Hemphill—and you, Ms. Laurance.”

  The last, her name, had a full, rolling sound like a tumbril on a cobbled Paris street.

  That night in Santa Fe. Emily had been wrong—as the law sees right and wrong—but Annie had never regretted helping her. And she’d do it again without hesitation.

  “No, sir. Not me. Or Capt. McElroy. We were the only people there, besides Ingrid, who aren’t writers. And Max, of course. But Max doesn’t count because he only happened to be there by accident that night. Elliot made it painfully clear to all of us that his book was going to expose the criminal minds of some well-known mystery writers.”

  “So you expect me to believe these accusations you’ve made are part of what Elliot intended to say?”

  “Exactly.”

  “So what did Elliot have on the rest of them?”

  Wham.

  Annie opened her mouth, closed it, and remembered the last fish she’d hauled gasping out of the Atlantic. Brother, talk about empathy.

  Max cleared his throat. “My client isn’t at liberty to disclose that information at the present moment, Chief.”

  Saulter’s head swung irritably toward Max. “Why the hell not? She couldn’t wait to unload on the others.” He swivelled back to Annie. “Come on, what’s the dope on the rest of them—Edelman, Hemphill, Rizzoli?”

  Annie shook her head decisively. “No, Max understands. I can’t give you any further information until I have verified it.”

  They both looked at her blankly.

  “It’s a matter of principle.” Hildegarde Withers could not have been more priggish. “Elliot was not trustworthy. Therefore, I can’t possibly reveal the information he gave me until I have the opportunity to interview the accused person and confirm or deny Elliot’s accusations. In our system of government, in our world view, all are innocent until proven guilty. Well, that’s the way it is with me.” A ringing speech, worthy of Perry Mason. Annie stood up. “So Max and I will get back to work. That’s what we were doing, Chief, when your motorcycle cop so rudely stopped us.”

  Alas, Saulter wasn’t quite that easy or that dumb.

  “Ms. Laurance, just one more thing.”

  She paused at the doorway.

  “You said Elliot gave you this material.”

  The sinking feeling swept Annie again. One peril past and on to the next. It was like surviving a ten-foot wave and looking up to see a fifteen-footer.

  “When did he give it to you, and where is it?”

  “When?”

  Saulter didn’t pong. He waited.

  If she admitted the disk came in the mail on Monday, the chief could attack her for hiding evidence. Hiding it? He could accuse her of losing it, because that’s precisely what she had done. And she couldn’t claim to have a typewritten copy, or she would have to account for that. She had nada to show Saulter. If she told him about the disk, he’d want to know what happened to it—and if he ever had any hint that she’d been in Elliot’s house when Harriet was killed, Annie was one plucked goose.

  She took a deep breath. “He didn’t exactly give it to me.”

  “No?” The question was chillingly genial.

  “My client has nothing further to say,” M
ax interposed.

  Saulter shook his head. “Oh, no, Mr. Darling. She’s going to answer this one. Or I’m going to arrest her as a material witness.”

  Desperately, Annie glanced around the chiefs office. A battered old Remington sat on a typing table. She remembered the outer office. Two secondhand desks for his two policemen, one desk for his secretary. Not a VDT in sight.

  When in doubt, tell some of the truth.

  “Elliot mailed me a floppy disk. You know, he was used to working on computers. She carefully did not suggest the disk had been produced on his own computer, and maybe, God willing, even in this electronic age, Chief Saulter might not realize that the material recorded on a floppy disk using one particular program and machine could not be read by any incompatible program and different machine. “Anyway, I read the disk—and I was so outraged by what he’d put down that I erased it.”

  “You what?”

  “Erased it.” She looked at him inquiringly. “Do you have a computer, Chief Saulter?”

  When he shook his head, she felt Max’s sigh. She leaned forward. “This is how it works …”

  Max came out of Parotti’s store bearing two Bud Lights.

  “Parotti says no strangers came across yesterday.”

  Annie took the beer and looked puzzled.

  “Just making sure,” Max explained. “Whoever killed Harriet was already on the island by Sunday or came by private boat.”

  “Whoever killed Harriet was here Saturday night because the person who killed Harriet also killed Jill—and Elliot, of course.”

  “I believe it, but a defense lawyer could make some argument if some strangers arrived Monday.”

  Annie choked on her beer.

  “Pretty weak defense.”

  Max shook his head. “Annie, did anybody ever tell you that you have mouthitis?”

  “It sounds scaly.”

  “It can be terminal,” he said bitterly. “And what the hell are we going to do when Saulter finds out that any disk Elliot produced could be read only on his machine?”

  “I read it on my machine,” she said stubbornly. “So Elliot must have had access to an Apple.”

  This time Max choked on his beer.

  Annie sipped hers daintily.

  “All right, Miss Clever Tongue. What are you going to tell the chief when he discovers that package arrived in the mail on Monday morning after Elliot’s unfortunate demise? I mean, while he’s busy charging you with destroying evidence.”

  Would Saulter check with her mailman? Would he begin to wonder about the accuracy of everything she’d said? Would he talk to somebody like Capt. Mac, who liked to repair computers for fun?

  “How much time do you think we have?” she asked grimly.

  “The rest of today. Maybe tomorrow.”

  “Then I suggest we get started.”

  Agreen lizard clung to the side of the house. The drapes were closed against the sliding glass doors that opened onto the deck. Afternoon sunlight flooded the deck with light and deepened the shadows beneath the eighty-foot sea pines. The only sounds were the occasional rustle as squirrels scampered from limb to limb, the soft thud of falling cones, and the tap of fragrant pine needles against the pitched roof of the house.

  Sweat beaded Annie’s face, slid down her back and thighs. Actually, it wasn’t terribly hot, a pleasant seventy-eight degrees and not humid. The last time she broke into someone’s house, the results—for her—were catastrophic. Think of what nearly happened to Grace Kelly in Rear Window. But this time she wasn’t alone.

  She turned her head slightly and whispered, “It looks okay.”

  Max put out a restraining hand. “I’ll scout in front. If I don’t see anybody, then I’ll knock. You stick tight here and wait for me.”

  They’d agreed that Harriet’s house deserved a once-over. After all, something must have prompted Harriet to show up at Elliot’s house at—for her—just the wrong moment.

  Had Harriet been suspicious of a particular person? If so, would there be anything in her desk or diary to reflect it? Annie knew she kept a diary. Harriet bought the blank-page books from Death On Demand, never failing to mention each time she did so that all real writers had the compulsion to record their thoughts and feelings for posterity.

  Ho hum.

  But now it might matter.

  Annie crept forward and touched the low limb of a live oak. The warm air lapping against her was as soothing as a hot tub.

  Today and maybe tomorrow. They had so little time. They still needed to talk to Fritz Hemphill, Capt. Mac, and Kelly Rizzoli. But what good would any of it do? What if they came up with a motive for everyone, but not a single shred of evidence linking a particular person to the murders?

  Somewhere there had to be evidence. Real, physical, concrete evidence. How could anyone move unseen and commit three murders? Had Saulter checked to see if anyone out late had seen a car near the Island Hills Veterinary Clinic? But, of course, he would have. He was probably asking all and sundry if they had seen her 1982 blue Volvo.

  There wouldn’t be any fingerprints at the Clinic, not after that evening when Capt. Mac had so thoroughly demonstrated just what did and did not hold prints.

  Would there be fingerprints at Death On Demand? Of course there would be, and everyone could shrug them away. After all, they’d been there many times. All Saulter cared about was her prints on the fuse box.

  As for Elliot’s house… She had that empty feeling that precedes awful knowledge. Had she left prints on the window sill or the floor? She’d scrubbed everything she thought she’d touched. She could always say she’d been at Elliot’s for dinner a few weeks earlier. Still, her prints in a hard-to-explain site would be all that Saulter needed to clap her in leg irons. Once again, she felt a terrible impatience to be active. Surely if they looked long enough, hard enough, there would be a clue to reveal the murderer. Where the heck was Max? As if in answer, she heard his rattling knock on Harriet’s front door. There was a pause, followed by another loud round of knocking.

  In a moment more, he rounded the corner of the house. Annie gestured at him impatiently. He responded with a thumbs-up. Obviously, he was enjoying himself. She could see it in the glint in his dark blue eyes. He probably read The Saint as a boy. She’d have to ask him later.

  “All clear,” he whispered.

  They crept across the flagstoned patio, Max in the lead. Annie was irresistibly reminded of playing Cowboys and Indians as a child.

  Max tugged on the patio door.

  Annie touched his elbow, pointed at the broomstick wedged inside in the door track.

  “Was the front door locked?” she asked softly.

  “I didn’t try. There’s a house across the street. It didn’t look as though anyone was home, but I thought we’d better try back here.”

  The McGuires, Annie knew, lived across from Harriet. Mildred McGuire was a Sara Paretsky freak who had given copies of Deadlock to all her friends and had named her parrot Boom Boom.

  Annie nodded, then motioned to him to follow. Feeling extremely conspicuous, she moved around the side of the house and tried the first door they reached. It opened, and they stepped into a laundry room. Light from the opened door illuminated a windowless, square utility room. Two concrete steps beside the washer and dryer led up to a door into the house.

  “I’ll bet the kitchen door is open. Hardly anybody locks up.”

  “Broward’s Rock—robber’s delight,” Max commented drily.

  “Until now, we’ve never had to worry about robbers—or murderers.”

  The kitchen door was unlocked.

  Yesterday afternoon Harriet had left her home with no idea that she would never return. Ivy glistened in the kitchen window in a ceramic gingerbread house. The drainboards were immaculate. Harriet didn’t litter. Annie thought regretfully about her own kitchen and the haphazard piling of bags of Fritos, pound cake, and cookies when the breadbox was full.

  A recently vaccumed peach-and-c
ream oriental runner ran the length of the main hall. The living room, shadowy because the periwinkle drapes were drawn, reflected a warmth and taste that seemed oddly at variance with Harriet’s abrasive personality. Obviously, she had treasured loveliness: Oil paintings of the Riviera coast hung above an unstained pine mantel holding matching cut glass vases. An ornately carved rosewood grand piano took pride of place before the closed French windows. October issues of Antiques and Architectural Digest lay on the square rose marble coffee table. The pale blue-and-gray oriental rug repeated the colors in the patterned wallpaper.

  Harriet’s housekeeping skills were evident throughout the house. No dust marred the butler’s table in the entry hall or the mahogany desk in the library. Annie paused before the extensive collection of books on France, Impressionist painting, French cooking, wildflowers, and, of course, mysteries, and admired what appeared to be a complete collection of Rex Stouts. One even looked like a first edition—maybe even autographed—but she resisted the impulse to check.

  In Harriet’s office, her ITT was neatly hooded, her desk top clear.

  Max eagerly pulled open the drawers. Check stubs and bill receipts in the first drawer, insurance policies in the second, publishing records in neat folders in the third.

  Annie promptly located a row of cloth-backed books on the bottom shelf of the office bookshelves. Harriet’s diaries, neatly numbered on the spine and dated.

  She reached down confidently, then paused. The last diary in the row was dated June 23-October 1 of that year.

  Obviously Harriet had begun a new diary October 2- but it wasn’t on the shelf.

  They looked in all the bookshelves. They checked the closets. They peered beneath the furniture and scanned the kitchen.

  “Let’s try upstairs,” Annie suggested. “She probably wrote in it every night when she was ready for bed. That’s where it will be.”

  She started up the stairs. Oyster-gray carpet on the treads. Harriet must not have expected much traffic. Annie, now excruciatingly aware of fingerprints, was careful not to touch the railing, which still glistened from its last polish with lemon oil. Her feeling of intrusion mounted. It seemed obscene for them to be here, poking their noses into Harriet’s private domain. They bypassed the two guest bedrooms. Harriet’s bedroom was dominated by a white, four-poster French provincial bed with a pink silk spread. A bisque-faced doll with delicate features and painted blue eyes—remarkably like Emma Clyde’s—sat atop the matching white chest. Who had given the doll to Harriet? Was it all that remained of her childhood? The doll’s delicate white lace dress looked freshly laundered.