by Diana Miller
“She talked to him that night?”
Jeremy shook his head. “She said when she got to Lakeview, she realized the garage wasn’t a good place for their discussion since their biggest fights had been about Ben wanting to do something other than work in finance. She went back to Grand Marais without seeing him. So now that I’ve come clean, how about dinner at Cleo’s?” He flashed a smile that probably made most women agree to anything he asked.
Unfortunately for him, Neil had the same smile. “Sorry, but I’ve got things to do,” Lexie said. “Thanks for the help, Jeremy.”
The night Ben had worked on the mayor’s car was the same night Max had been killed. Olivia could have gone to Nevermore to wait for Ben, figuring she’d confront him outside when he got out of his vehicle. She could have seen Max while she was waiting and realized Ben wouldn’t inherit after all. So she’d later killed Max using the gun she knew was in Nevermore’s basement and that she’d somehow retrieved, or maybe Max had the gun and she’d gotten it away from him. Olivia wouldn’t have tried to frame Ben, not when she was counting on his fortune to save her from the SEC. But maybe she’d hidden the gun under the pickup’s seat, planning to dispose of it later. Maybe she hadn’t even realized the pickup belonged to Ben.
Or maybe she was working with Jeremy after all.
Olivia had just moved up the suspect list. But much as Lexie would like her to be guilty, she couldn’t ignore other potential suspects. Taking a deep breath, Lexie walked up Nevermore’s front stairs.
She was just about to ring the bell when Muriel stepped out. Today she was wearing a rose cardigan, white blouse, and gray skirt. Her gray hair was in a tight bun, and her lipstick matched her cardigan.
“That’s an interesting pin,” Lexie said, referring to a silver pin with a unique design that decorated the neck of Muriel’s shirt.
“It’s actually a Wicca symbol, but hopefully no one at First Baptist will figure that out,” Muriel said. “I lost the top button and didn’t have time to change blouses.”
“Do you know if the rest of the family is around?”
“Dylan is still in bed, Jeremy went boating, and Seth’s gone, although I don’t know where. But Cecilia’s in the living room.” She narrowed her eyes behind silver bifocals. “After what I saw last night, I hope you’re being careful.”
“I’ll stay away from water when it’s misty,” Lexie said.
“Be careful everywhere. The crystal isn’t one hundred percent accurate. It showed Maxwell dying in bed, which was wrong, but he’s still dead.” The wrinkles in Muriel’s forehead deepened. “Maybe it was also wrong last night, and the next victim was Trey. You may be fine. Although Trey was poisoned, not shot. And nowhere near water.”
“Maybe the water you saw was a metaphor for poison,” Lexie suggested. “Since both are liquids.”
“Could be,” Muriel said. “Although Trey certainly wasn’t wearing a skirt.” She nodded, her forehead smoothing slightly. “I’ll have to consult the crystal again, but not until later. I have Bible Study at First Baptist. After that I thought I’d stop by St. Rose of Lima and say a prayer for Ben and a few rosaries for my brother. Have a nice day.”
###
Item one on Lexie’s To Do list was returning Cecilia’s bracelet. Starting with an easily achievable task was always good psychologically. “I think this is yours,” Lexie said, crossing the living room to the chair where Cecilia was reading. “The police found it in Ben’s room and assumed it was mine.”
“I’ve been looking for that,” Cecilia said, taking the bracelet from Lexie. “Thanks. I didn’t even think about checking Ben’s room. I was only in there for a couple of minutes to use his laptop. I wanted to see whether my divorce is final.”
“Is it?”
She nodded. “I’m officially a free woman. Once again.”
“Have you talked to Peter about your previous marriages?”
Cecilia worried her lower lip, twisting the bracelet in her fingers. “I’ve tried to make myself, but I can’t bring it up. I’m afraid he’ll never want to see me again.”
“I bet he’ll understand.”
“I’m not so sure,” Cecilia said. “I heard you saw Ben. Olivia was furious that you got in before she did. How’s he doing?”
“He’s anxious to get out of jail,” Lexie said. “Which is why I’m here. Did you notice anyone around when Trey told you about Ben’s argument with Max? Someone who could have overheard and decided to poison Trey to frame Ben?”
Cecilia thought for a moment, and then shook her head. “I didn’t see anyone, but we were at the bottom of the stairs, so anyone could have overheard us. Sherry hour didn’t start for another fifteen minutes, which is plenty of time to find turpentine. That’s what Trey was poisoned with, if you didn’t hear.”
“I heard,” Lexie said. “Did your grandfather have turpentine in the house?”
Cecilia nodded. “He kept a huge can of it along with a bunch of old paint in the basement. On some shelves right next to the shelves where he kept the gun.”
Where—as with the gun—anyone could have found it. “Do you know where Igor is?”
“I saw him in the kitchen,” she said. “He was polishing silver, which should take him a while. I can’t believe how much silver Grandfather owned.”
Lexie walked into the kitchen. Igor was standing next to the sink, an enormous chest of silver to the left of him. “I was just looking for you, Igor.”
“Why?” He rinsed a fork, and then set it on a rack on his right.
“The trustee currently owns Nevermore and will be running it for a while. I need to talk to all current employees.”
“Am I being fired?” Igor asked.
“Actually, just questioned,” Lexie said. “Why don’t you take a break and sit down.”
She waited until Igor was seated to continue. “I know your real name is Jason Stephenson,” she said. “I also know you never went to USC, so you obviously weren’t a friend of Seth’s. What are you really doing here?”
Igor’s face never wavered from his normal impassive expression. “I’m working as a butler. Why else would I be polishing silver?”
“I mean why did you want this job? Why did you come here in the first place? Working as a butler in the middle of nowhere isn’t the kind of job most people would lie to get without a good reason.”
He didn’t respond, his face still revealing nothing.
“Look, you could easily have poisoned Max and even Trey. You also could have tried to kill Max by shooting out the window of Nevermore. The issue is whether you were doing it for some reason of your own or because you were working for Seth.”
That finally got a reaction from him. His jaw dropped, and his eyes narrowed. “You’re crazy. I have nothing to do with any attempts on Max’s life. Or Trey’s.”
“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll have to tell the police you lied to get your job here,” Lexie said. “Maybe Seth doesn’t know anything about it, doesn’t know you used his name to get the job. You have to agree that lying to get your job makes you look suspicious. Especially if you have a criminal record. Do you?”
“I don’t want any trouble with the police,” Igor said, ignoring the criminal record question. “I’ll admit I’m working for Seth, but I had nothing to do with Max’s death. Seth is writing a biography of Max.”
“I know.”
Igor blinked a couple of times, although Lexie didn’t know whether it was out of surprise or more contact lens issues. “He apparently decided to do it because Max pissed him off by refusing to help him professionally,” Igor said. “If Seth wants to write a book to get back at him, that’s his business. It’s not illegal.”
Lexie nodded.
“Seth apparently talked to his mother and a few other people, claiming he was interested in family history. And he knew a lot on his own, and his mother apparently kept a scrapbook about Max. But he also wanted photos of Nevermore, of things Max had used in his books, an
d family photos. Things Seth couldn’t get without looking suspicious in his short visits here. And he wanted someone to snoop around and listen.”
“So he hired you to do it?”
“First he hired the guy who played Igor before me,” Igor said. “Alton’s an actor and a good friend of Joanna’s. They staged this elaborate thing with fake references, using actor friends who Max actually spoke to. That way Max had no idea Alton was connected to Seth. But then Alton started missing California and all his acting opportunities there, so he got a job at Disneyland. He could only give two weeks’ notice, and he knew he was putting Seth in a bind, so he convinced me to take his place. I’ve been trying to break into acting, too, but I’ve spent most of my time waiting tables, among other things. I decided playing a butler might be about as close to acting as I’m going to get, so I agreed. We didn’t have time to work out the references since Max was about to contact an agency. So Seth told his grandfather I was an old friend from college.”
“What did you do at Nevermore?”
“Besides being a butler?” Igor asked. “Take photos of the stuff in the basement. Snoop around. I’m the one who told Seth about the shooting through the window. He told me he sold the story to the tabloids and to let him know if anything like that happened again. A few weeks later I also saw a copy of that trust amendment that requires everyone to spend two weeks here. I told Seth about it, but I don’t know what he did with the information. I reported on some conversations I overheard between Max and his grandkids and sister when they asked for money. None of that was illegal.”
“Did you know that Seth wasn’t going to publish the biography until after his grandfather died?”
“He said he wouldn’t, out of respect for his grandfather,” Igor said.
“So now that Seth’s going to publish it, you stand to make a lot of money.”
“No, I stand to make less,” Igor said. “I was being paid by the hour. I don’t get any share of profits from the biography, if that’s what you’re getting at. That was the same arrangement Alton had with Seth. And now that Max is dead, I’m out of a job.”
“Where did Seth get the money to pay you?”
“I don’t know. All I cared about was that he paid me on time, and he did.”
“As part of your snooping, did you look through Max’s bedroom?” Lexie asked.
“No. I’ve never been in there. Max hasn’t left Nevermore since I started working here, so I didn’t dare try to break in. But I know Seth searched the room after everyone thought Max died the first time. He made me keep watch once while he searched it, pretend like I was cleaning the second-floor hallway so I could stop anyone from going up to the third floor.”
“Did he find anything in Max’s room?”
“Not that he told me,” Igor said.
“Did he go there any other time?”
“I don’t know,” Igor said.
“Where did he get a key to the room?”
“I have no idea. Maybe a skeleton key?”
“Did you know that Max was alive?”
“God, no. I thought Seth was kidding when he told me that’s why all the police were there.”
“Did Seth know Max was alive?”
“If he did, he didn’t tell me.”
“Do you think Seth killed Max?”
“I have no idea,” Igor said. “It’s hard for me to imagine anyone killing their grandfather. But neither of mine is leaving me a fortune, so maybe that makes you feel different. And I don’t know whether Seth’s the kind of person who could kill, because I honestly don’t know him very well.”
“Since you’ve been snooping around here, have you seen anything suspicious since the family arrived here? Or someone here who shouldn’t have been here the night Max died or the night Trey was poisoned?”
“Nothing when Trey was poisoned, but I did see something unusual the night Max died. Although it’s probably nothing.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“I happened to be looking out my bedroom window at just before one and saw her on the path that leads to the lake.”
Bingo. “Ben’s ex-wife, right?”
“Not her,” Igor said. “Cecilia.”
CHAPTER 24
“Cecilia was on the path that night?” Maybe Lexie hadn’t heard him right.
Igor nodded. “I’d gotten up to take a leak at ten to one and spotted her. I checked the clock because I thought it was kind of late for her to be out. But I never saw her come back.”
“Did you mention this to the cops?”
“They only asked whether I saw Ben, and I didn’t. I didn’t volunteer anything else. I’ve learned the hard way that’s the best thing to do when you’re dealing with cops.” His tone held touches of belligerence and bitterness that made her suspect she’d been right about him having a record. “I also didn’t want them looking too closely at me since I was here under false pretenses.”
“You didn’t think it was unusual for Cecilia to be out that time of night?”
He shrugged. “I assumed she wasn’t going to be out there alone. I figured she’d sneaked out to meet some guy at the boathouse, which is her own business. She’s been married three times, after all.”
Lexie was having trouble believing this. “You didn’t mention seeing her even though Max was murdered at one o’clock by the lake?”
Igor’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know that’s when he was killed. When the coroner got here, it was after ten. He just said Max had been dead a few hours, so I figured the murder happened a lot later than one.”
Lexie thought for a moment. The police had withheld the text of the note, saying simply that Ben and Max had planned to meet, which is all the press had reported. She only knew it specified a one o’clock meeting time because Ben had told her. “Was Cecilia carrying anything?”
“A flashlight,” Igor said. “I didn’t see a gun, if that’s what you mean. Although I suppose it’s possible she had it in her other hand. Do you think I should tell the cops about this after all?”
“Let me check it out first,” Lexie said. “I don’t want to cause her any problems if she had an innocent reason for being out.”
“I’m sure she did,” Igor said. “She seems like too nice a lady to kill anyone.”
It was hard for Lexie to imagine, too. But it was also hard to come up with an innocent reason for Cecilia to have been heading to where Max had arranged to meet Ben, at the exact time of their meeting.
# # #
The policeman on duty at the jail that evening had apparently gotten the word to cooperate. He escorted Lexie to the back room, brought Ben in, and then left them alone, all without her even breathing the word “lawsuit.”
The room seemed more claustrophobic every time Lexie came into it, as if the cops were moving the walls in a few inches every day. She couldn’t even imagine how it seemed to Ben. She didn’t bother asking how he was doing—his features were strained, and his pallor wasn’t solely attributable to the room’s dim fluorescent lighting. “You’re not going to be in here much longer,” she said with more confidence than she felt. She had a theory, but she didn’t have proof.
Her tone was apparently convincing because Ben leaned over the table, color spiking his cheeks. “You found something?”
Lexie looked around the room. She couldn’t see a camera, but she didn’t want the cops messing this up. “Do they tape everything we say in here?”
“They’re not that high-tech,” Ben said. “What did you find out?”
“You’re not going to like it. Actually, you’re going to hate it.”
“If it gets me out of here for good, I’ll love it. What?”
“I learned that Olivia lied about being in New York the night Max was killed. She was really in Lakeview and might have visited Nevermore. That means she could have known Max was alive and even killed him. I also learned that Seth has been writing a biography of Max that he submitted to publishers right after he thought your grandfather ha
d been killed. He’s been snooping around for more material and was in Max’s room at least once, so he could have discovered Max was alive. And Seth would have realized that if Max learned about the biography, there was a very good chance he’d be disinherited.”
“I’m sorry that my ex or Seth killed Grandfather, but it’s a lot better than me being convicted of it,” Ben said. “Why would I hate it?”
“Because I don’t think either of them killed Max,” Lexie said. “I think the person who killed Max and framed you is Cecilia.”
His jaw dropped, and he stared at her openmouthed for a moment. “You’re crazy.”
“Igor saw Cecilia on the path heading toward the lake just before one the night your grandfather was killed,” Lexie said. “He didn’t see her come back. He didn’t mention it to the police because the cops never publicized that Max was murdered at one. He figured she was meeting a boyfriend, and it was none of his business.”
“Did you ask Cecilia about it?” Ben asked.
“Not yet. But why else would she have gone there in the middle of the night? And that isn’t all I’ve got.” Lexie looked down at the list she’d made after talking to Igor. “The cops found Cecilia’s bracelet in your room, although they assumed it was mine. I remember she had it at breakfast the morning before Max was killed, which means she was in your room sometime between then and when the cops searched your room the next morning. Maybe she saw Max’s note, freaked out when she realized he was alive, and went to meet him. Or maybe the note wasn’t written to you at all. You said the note didn’t have anyone’s name on it, so maybe Max wrote it to Cecilia after learning she’d made the previous attempts on his life. She killed Max, and then left the gun in your truck and the note in your room. And in the process lost her bracelet.”
“I’m sure she had a logical reason for being in my room.”
“She said she used your laptop to check whether her divorce was final. But according to the court records, her divorce was final ten days before she came to Nevermore.”
