For Letter or Worse

by Vivian Conroy

  “Case file?” Hazel echoed.

  Delta nodded and extracted her sketchbook from her purse. She always carried it with her to make little drawings of scenes she came across or ideas that popped into her head. Hazel and she were looking into the possibility of starting their own stationery line to carry in the shop, and the wrapping paper and notebooks would then display Delta’s designs. She had so many she wasn’t quite sure yet which to choose first.

  In the murder case at the Lodge, she had used the back of the sketchbook to make a case file, using stationery items to create a makeshift police whiteboard, with the victim, suspects, and leads. It had worked well, so she might as well try again for Sally Drake’s murder.

  She sat down and drew the shape of a human body in the center of two white pages and wrote: Sally Drake, formerly lived in Los Angeles, an art advisor for museums and galleries, left her husband, Abe, lost her job (quit or got dismissed?), came to Tundish, wanted to join her brother Calvin Drake’s design company.

  She then sketched Calvin Drake in his suit and wrote beside him: Calvin Drake of Drake Design wasn’t at the party but at the Lodge, discussing changes with Rosalyn. Twice married before, seems to have lost touch with the children from his first marriage. Believed his wife to be threatened (mysterious grocery delivery, which had Lena in hysterics), and hired Jonas to keep an eye on her at the party.

  She drew Una Edel with her key chain in her hand and wrote: right-hand woman in Drake Design.

  She connected Una and Sally with a bit of washi tape, writing on it: Was Sally competition for Una? What was Una’s key chain doing in Sally’s hand?

  Then she drew Lena Laroy and wrote down a number of questions: Threatened by whom? Can we establish who placed the perfume bottle on the gift table? Camera footage? Why did her previous relationship end suddenly and without a reason provided? Did she marry Drake solely for his money and to get a place in his company?

  She connected the figure of Lena to Drake with a bit of tape, reading married and to Sally with a note: What was their relationship like? Sally resentful/jealous during the gift unwrapping?

  Hazel watched over her shoulder as Delta added Clara of LyCla Design in her purple pant suit and put up a note asking: Was she friendly with Drake? She wasn’t at the party, Lydia was.

  She sketched in Lydia as a vague figure, since she hadn’t seen her yet.

  More vague figures appeared: Sally’s husband, Abe, with in town?, and the guy who had been with Lena at the party, Drake’s nephew Randall. His father inherited the family fortune, cutting out Calvin. What was Sally’s role in this? What was her relationship with Randall? Come to think of it, Delta wondered if Sally’s hateful looks at Lena during the gift unwrapping had been prompted by Randall’s presence by her side. Had she disliked her nephew’s closeness with her sister-in-law?

  “Don’t forget Zara,” Hazel reminded her. She went to fetch something and returned with a sheet of foam stickers representing various dog breeds. “Look, Pearl and Emerald.”

  Delta grinned as Hazel peeled two poodles away from the sheet and handed them to her. “I will use the rest of the sheet to create a mock scrapbooking page for the shop.”

  Nodding, Delta pasted the poodles beside the figure of Zara: Did she know Drake even before she came to work at the villa? The two of them met at the Lodge, and he wrapped his arm around her. Why is she a dog walker if she can’t control the dogs? She claims to need money, for what?

  “Seems there are enough questions and rather odd things,” Hazel said, looking across the sheets. “I mean, it seems everyone wanted to get into Drake’s company—Sally, Lena, LyCla, maybe even Zara. But can they even? I mean, I can want to work at a bank or as a rock-climbing instructor, but I’d need an education for that, right?”

  “Lena could bring her celebrity status, and Sally may have appealed to Calvin’s sense of family loyalty. He did appreciate her art advice for the villa. Maybe she really could have made a contribution to his interior designs doing the art side of things. Which would make her the real rival for Una. Not Lena.” Delta pursed her lips. “We have to zoom in on why those keys were in Sally’s hand. And what about her husband, Abe? Do we know for sure he’s in town? Calvin said so to me, but Jonas should check on that. And even if he’s in town, he could have an ironclad alibi, having been at his hotel all afternoon or something. Maybe we can exclude him right away?” Delta picked up her phone and sent Jonas a text message. She also mentioned having spoken to Clara Ritter and recalled the thought flashing through her head while Clara had been in the shop with them: Had Marc LeDuc written something unpleasant about the designing ladies?

  She went online to his news site and searched for the name of the design agency. She didn’t have to look far to find a picture of Drake and Clara toasting each other with wine. They were seated on a terrace somewhere along the lake, maybe the Lodge. They smiled broadly.

  The headline asked whether good times were ahead for a local design agency as a major deal was struck with nationally acclaimed Drake Design. Delta studied the photo for a while, wondering if this really was business or something more personal. If so, Clara couldn’t have been happy with it going public. And how about Drake? He was married, after all. Had Lena Laroy seen this photo and put pressure on her husband not to do business with the ladies anymore? Was Lydia angry at Lena for the deal falling through? Or maybe at Clara for risking their business by being so friendly with Drake?

  The doorbell jangled, and customers filed in, a dozen women, who chatted busily about going to see the gold-mining museum after lunch. The one in the lead explained to Hazel they had ten minutes before lunch to shop, and she wanted to see the paper goodies, because those were simply too good to resist. Hazel said she’d try her best to serve them all in ten minutes.

  Delta’s eyes went wide as she watched the ladies rush through the shop, grabbing notebooks here, washi tape there, stickers, wrapping paper, and pens. One added two expensive calligraphy sets to her purchase, explaining she’d give those to her mother and mother-in-law over Christmas.

  Hazel manned the cash register while Delta giftwrapped the items at a speed she had never managed before. As she handed out the last paper bag to the final customer, the first ladies had already left to claim their places at Mine Forever for lunch. The door shut, and Hazel released breath in a long huff. “That was…fast.”

  Delta burst out laughing. “Normally, we’d sell this much in two or three days, and now we sold it in less than a quarter of an hour.”

  “I don’t think we have to change anything about this store.” Hazel grinned. “It’s perfect the way it is.”

  Chapter Seven

  They were about to close up shop when Jonas appeared. “Listen, there have been some developments in the case, and I wondered…if you’d go to dinner with me to discuss them.”

  Delta focused on some notebooks on a display table. “I uh…Hazel and I…”

  “I’ve got leftovers I can warm up.” Hazel sounded brisk. “You go. Fine with me.”

  Delta knew there were no leftovers, but her friend was apparently eager to see her leave with Jonas. Recalling how little interest he had had that morning for her outfit, or anything else for that matter, she wondered if Hazel wasn’t mistaking Jonas’s professional zeal about the murder case for something more romantic.

  Jonas said, “Are you ready to leave? I wanted to go to this little place I discovered along the lake. They have great fish dishes. If you like fish.”

  “I eat almost anything.” Delta looked at Hazel. “Okay for you to lock up on your own?”

  “Sure, no problem. Have a good time.”

  Delta got her purse and coat and followed Jonas out of the shop. His Jeep was parked right in front, which was actually forbidden, but at this hour there was no deputy in sight to put a ticket on it. He opened the passenger door for her. Delta clambered in and buckled up. She pa
tted her coat, which lay across her knee. She was suddenly a bit nervous about this whole thing, which was silly, as she had spent time with Jonas before. But dinner together was just a bit more…

  Jonas started the engine. “I can answer that question you texted to me.”

  Delta had to think a few moments to know what he was referring to. “Oh. About Sally Drake’s husband. Whether he’s in town.”

  “Yes. He is. And I know exactly where.”

  “Ah. I see.” Suddenly Delta got it all. “You’re taking me to dinner in the restaurant of the hotel where this guy is staying, so you can survey him. Clever.” She didn’t want to admit to herself she was a little disappointed at this idea.

  “Nope, that’s not it.”

  “Oh.” Her sense of excitement returned with a flutter in her stomach. “So where is he staying then?”

  “In a cell at the police station.”

  She glanced at him. “He’s in jail? So, he can’t have committed the murder if he was locked up already. What for anyway?”

  “They arrested him this afternoon.” Jonas glanced at her. “Someone declared they had seen a man skulking about in the forest near the villa. They assumed it was him. That he had waited for Sally Drake and then, when he had her alone, he fought with her over money and killed her.”

  “I see. But do they think it was an impromptu killing then, unplanned? He got angry and hurt her… Or is it about the inheritance? Does the sheriff know he will now inherit her property?”

  “The sheriff did look into the matter of the wills. Or rather, Calvin Drake readily told him that his sister had been about to make a new will, as she didn’t want her husband to get anything of hers, but she hadn’t done so yet. So, currently he does inherit.”

  “I see. That could mean he knew that she was going to cut him off, and he acted before that. But it seems a bit stupid to kill someone when you’re clearly the one profiting off the death; you’re immediately in the police spotlight.”

  “Right. From what I heard, he’s protesting his innocence with all his might. But West locked him up anyway.” Jonas grimaced. “We know he isn’t always right in those decisions.”

  “You doubt it was the husband?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t met the guy. I don’t know if he carried a grudge or was angry at her for leaving LA. She kept her maiden name, never wanted to call herself Jarvis—that’s his name, Abe Jarvis. Some men take rejection badly. He might have resented her independent attitude before, and he may have killed her because he didn’t want her to be free. Those cases happen from time to time.”

  “But you’re not convinced?”

  Jonas hemmed. “There was so much going on. Lena being threatened, Drake telling me he didn’t know whom he could trust. So, the threat might not have come from the outside, but from someone near. Who did he mean?”

  “Have you asked him?”

  “I tried to call him, but he’s not answering his phone. I guess the media are hot on his trail, and he’s lying low for a bit.”

  “I can understand that.” Delta nodded. “The death seemed to have hit him hard. Do you know if he was close with Sally?”

  “When we met to discuss the threats against his wife and my role at the party, he did mention her in passing. That it was great she was staying with them because she was so positive despite her sad circumstances. I guess he felt she provided a welcome distraction, maybe also for Lena.”

  “But did Lena and Sally get along? I thought it was odd they both wore a turquoise dress. Ladies who live under the same roof can prevent their clothing looking too similar. I mean, as soon as you see the other one, you can say ‘Oh, we seem to have the same great taste, but we don’t need to look like twins, do we? Could you maybe select another dress?’”

  Jonas glanced at her. “Speaking from experience?”

  “Not really.” Delta laughed. “I can’t recall Hazel and I ever wearing something similar, not even in college. We have different tastes, I guess. I wonder if Sally bought a dress similar to Lena’s to spite her. You know what they say about not wearing white to a wedding because you’d take attention away from the bride? What if Sally wanted to take attention away from the birthday girl?”

  “A sort of strife between the ladies? Maybe for Calvin Drake’s affection? But he wasn’t even at the party.” Jonas shook his head. “There could be a simple explanation for it. Sally wasn’t as well to do as her brother and his wife. Maybe she only had this dress to wear.”

  “But her family has money, right? Calvin Drake was cut off, but not his brother, so why wouldn’t Sally have inherited money too? That fortune is exactly what her husband is supposed to be after. Then again”—Delta glanced out of the window. Light was fading fast—“we really don’t know a whole lot about her.”

  “I can help you there. I talked to a former colleague of hers at the museum where she gave advice about their collection.”

  “Oh, you’ve been busy.” Delta shifted her weight in the seat. “What did that colleague tell you?”

  “That she was a very nice person to work with, knowledgeable and friendly. That her husband wasn’t so pleasant, though. She had called Sally once or twice, before the split, and when her husband answered the phone, he growled at her that she shouldn’t make calls outside working hours.”

  “Couldn’t she call on Sally’s cell?”

  “She did. He apparently picked that up as well. Could indicate that he tried to control her life.”

  “And what did he discover when he looked in her phone? You often hear people check each other’s messages to find proof of infidelity. If Abe found something on her phone before she left him, it might have made him mad enough to follow her here and hurt her.”

  Jonas nodded while he steered the Jeep around a bend in the road. “Especially if he figured that she was waiting for her new love, a little away from the party.”

  Delta’s thoughts raced. “Did Calvin Drake tell you anything about a new love for Sally? Oh, no, he can’t have. You said he only mentioned his sister in passing and you haven’t been able to reach him since the murder.”

  “Right. I did ask the colleague if she knew more about Sally’s reasons for divorcing her husband and leaving town. She said it had come as a shock to all of them that Sally was leaving, but that her boss had said it was for a good reason. She guessed that Sally might’ve wanted to make ‘a fresh start as her husband was pushy.’ Quote unquote.”

  “I see.” Delta surveyed the specks of lights in the distance, probably lit windows of holiday homes on the other side of the lake. “So, everything you found out strengthens the case against Sally’s husband, who is now locked up by the police. Well, maybe West can solve the case quickly, and Calvin Drake will be happy with him and decide not to file charges against the station.”

  “I don’t know. Isn’t it all too neat? The husband, who was harassing her, who couldn’t accept she had walked away, following her here, her turning up dead, him being arrested? And it still doesn’t account for Lena and the perfume threat.”

  “I’m sure West will look at fingerprints on the weapon and see how the presumed killer might have gotten hold of that weapon. Do you know what the weapon was?”

  Jonas nodded. “A knife that was lying on one of the tables to be used to cut up cake.”

  “So, anyone at the party could have picked it up…” Delta frowned. “But didn’t you say the husband allegedly came from outside the party? That he lurked in waiting for her in the forest on the edge of the villa’s grounds?”

  “He could have walked to the table and picked up the knife. There were about seventy people milling about, including staff, caterers, and workshop presenters like you and Hazel. Nobody would have paid much attention to a single person going to a table.”

  “Okay. Did Drake have security images he could give to the police?”

 
“Yes, he has a system that records several key places around the house—the driveway, part of the lawn, and all the entrances.” Jonas braked as they came up behind a slow-moving truck. “But he doesn’t have a camera on the forest, so we have no images of the actual murder scene.”

  “That would have been too easy, right?” Delta pursed her lips. “If we could simply have looked at some footage and see someone do it.” She shivered. “It must be gruesome.”

  “It probably happened very quickly. I doubt she noticed much.”

  “And the killer could have been male or female?”

  “Yes, definitely.”

  “That means Una Edel isn’t off the hook. Remember, her key chain was found in the dead woman’s hands. How does she explain that?”

  “She claims they are not her keys, but a bunch of spare keys used around the house. Front door, garage, that sort of thing. Lena used that set from time to time when she couldn’t find her own. Zara the dog walker used them too, and apparently Sally as well while she stayed there.”

  “Sally had the house keys in her hand to use.” Delta tilted her head. “Does that mean she wanted to get inside somewhere? But she was found outside at the edge of the forest. What was there to unlock?”

  Jonas shrugged. The truck in front of them turned into a side road, and he accelerated again. “I haven’t heard about anything she might have wanted to unlock. There’s a path through that forest leading back to the lake. When the villa was built, it also had a boathouse, but it was demolished later. It’s a plain dock now. No cover there, let alone anything with a lock on it. The sheriff assumes Sally never intended to go into the forest or down to the lake, but was just there, perhaps waiting for someone, away from the party.”

  “And then her husband found her first and killed her…” Delta stared into the darkness. She recalled the moment when Zara Kingsley had run into the living room, screaming about a dead body. She had given a few details about how she had found it, and something had struck Delta as important at the time. But her mind refused to recall the exact wording.