15 Minutes of Flame

by Christin Brecher

  In the parking lot, I called Peter. The hospital is not too far from the offices of the Inquirer & Mirror.

  “Any interest in Crab City?” I said.

  I couldn’t believe that murder had helped me find an interest in joining Peter at Crab City, but I needed some fresh air and a new perspective.

  A few minutes later, Peter was in my car, and we were heading down the Polpis Road, wearing two Inquirer & Mirror sweatshirts for extra warmth.

  “Have you learned anything new about Solder?” said Peter.

  “You forgot to tell me that Patience told Brenda that the map and the murder were two separate things,” I said.

  Peter pushed the bangs off his forehead.

  “I don’t recall her saying anything about a map while I was in The Shack,” he said. “But it’s kind of eerie that she knew about one.”

  “I don’t believe Brenda can talk to the dead,” I said, pulling onto the dirt road toward the beach.

  “She’s pretty convincing,” said Peter.

  “I’ll find out tomorrow, either way,” I said. “I have an appointment to meet with her.”

  I pulled up to the parking area by the U Mass research cottage, and Peter and I rolled up our jeans. Then, I ran ahead, feeling the cold sand beneath my feet. I could hear Peter behind me, so I sped up and headed to the edge of the water. It was freezing, but the shock to my skin was energizing. I could hear the splash of Peter’s feet behind me. I knew he was enjoying the run as much as I was.

  When we reached the bend in the water that lead to the cove where Peter was doing his work, he caught my hand. I turned to him and found myself in his embrace.

  “This whole case confuses me,” he said, with a kiss for good measure. “How is it possible that someone knocked over the tree and then killed Solder without anyone noticing? I mean you were there, and I wasn’t, but it all sounds so impossible. Even if the police come up with a motive, how did someone pull it off?”

  We were walking beyond Crab City’s cove at this point, holding hands along the edge of the water. I realized we were generally headed in the direction of Old Holly’s.

  “That’s funny,” said Peter.

  I followed his gaze and saw a canoe. It was untied, but it was caught in the weeds of the inlet and jammed behind a rock.

  “Let’s get in,” I said. “My feet need to warm up.”

  We both headed for the boat. I noticed that it had originally been painted green but that a lot of the paint had peeled away over time. I don’t know what we were expecting to find inside, but it was empty except for a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

  “Here’s the oar,” said Peter, sloshing into the weeds, his jeans getting wet.

  I came up behind him as he lifted the oar and brought it back to the boat. As he stepped away, however, I noticed something else bobbing in the weeds beside it. I leaned over, confused by what it might be, and reached for it.

  “Here’s something I can’t seem to escape this week,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” said Peter.

  He dropped the oar in the boat and then turned around to face me.

  “Is that a human bone?” he said, his eyes blinking as if to register the long, white object in my hand.

  “It is,” I said.

  Chapter 15

  Peter yanked off his sweatshirt. We knew enough to wrap up something of interest before taking it to the police. That, of course, was where we headed with the bone. And the pack of cigarettes.

  Entering headquarters out on Fairgrounds Road, we made our way to Andy’s desk. He was there, but not alone. I was surprised by his visitor. Agnes sat in the guest chair beside him, wringing her hands. Even more surprising was her reaction when she saw me.

  “Oh, thank goodness. You’ve found it,” she said as we approached with the bone sticking out of Peter’s sweatshirt.

  Andy turned around. Upon seeing the bone in Peter’s possession, he jumped up to retrieve it, calling to another officer to get appropriate materials to bag both it and the pack of cigarettes.

  “We found the bone beside a canoe out by the U Mass beach,” I said, before he could ask us. “The cigarettes were in the boat.”

  “What were you doing out at the beach?” he said.

  “We were on a date,” I said, regretting my comment the moment I said it. I had forgotten Andy’s sad voice when he had spoken to Georgianna earlier.

  “How lovely,” said Agnes, lightening the mood. “But you must have been chilly. Oh, I guess not.” She giggled and winked at Peter.

  Andy pulled over two more chairs, and we all sat.

  “Agnes was just telling me about a bone that sounds just like the one you found,” he said. “So let’s all of us get down to business. Does anyone know whose bone it is?”

  “That’s what I was starting to tell you,” said Agnes. “I do know.”

  We all looked at her expectantly. Agnes felt the top of her head for her glasses, but they weren’t there. This time, they were hanging from her sweater. Once she found them, she was out of tricks, so she took a breath and faced us.

  “I took it from Patience Cooper’s skeleton,” she said.

  Now it was Andy’s turn to look at me.

  “Did you see Agnes take the bone?” he said.

  “Not at all,” said Agnes, looking pleased. “I was very stealthy. I was in and out last night before anyone could see me. I was going for a pinky bone, or something small, but the femur popped right out. It was as if Patience wanted me to take that one, of all the others. And I know it’s the femur because when I got home, I googled it.”

  It occurred to me that the noises I’d heard last night might have included Agnes’s robbery.

  “I was in The Shack this morning,” said Peter. “Brenda Worthington was there, and the chain across the door was broken. I assumed she did it.”

  “No, I did,” said Agnes.

  “Brenda was there?” said Andy.

  Peter and I nodded. Andy took out his notepad.

  “So, Agnes, you broke the lock last night?” he said.

  Agnes nodded.

  “With a chain cutter,” she said.

  “And you have a chain cutter because... ?” said Andy.

  “Because I locked my own shed last spring and found I had lost the key when it came time to plant my bulbs,” she said, as if he was a silly fool to ask.

  “So you broke into The Shack and stole the femur,” said Andy, not batting an eye. “And why did you take the femur?”

  “I wanted to learn more about my family’s history,” she said. “I bought one of those 23andMe tests. I thought I’d check it out.”

  No one said anything. I figured Andy could handle this one. He did so by moving on. I thought he made the right choice.

  “I was planning to return it right after the excavation this morning,” said Agnes. “That’s how the trouble began. I put it in the back seat of my car. When I was finally released from Old Holly’s abysmal house, I returned to my car, but the bone was gone.”

  “Why didn’t you tell someone right away?” said Andy.

  Agnes touched her head again.

  “Because I thought maybe I’d left it on the kitchen counter before I’d left,” she said. “I was in quite a hurry and was feeling very nervous this morning, as you can imagine. I was running late to meet the girls for breakfast. They took me to the bakery for a bite before we had our class with Stella. Of course, when I got home, it wasn’t on the counter. So I called the girls on the off chance that somehow it had ended up with one of them in all of the confusion. It took me a while to hunt down Cherry because she was at the Marine Home Center getting thread for the cobwebs.”

  “They’re crocheting cobwebs for Halloween Haunts,” I helpfully explained to Andy.

  Peter was beside me. I thought I heard him suck in a laugh, but Andy was in no laughing mood.

  “And after the ladies didn’t have the bone, you came here?” he said.

  “After I checked at the ba
kery,” said Agnes. “Then, of course, I came to you. We couldn’t have Patience’s leg floating around town, now, could we?”

  In spite of the professional distance Andy was trying to maintain, I noticed his lip twitch too. He jotted down Agnes’s last comments and then turned his attention to me.

  “And how do you fit into all of this?” he said.

  “Peter and I found the bone in a canoe by the U Mass beach. You might want to have a team get down there for fingerprints, but there were no other physical clues.”

  Andy made a note. I noticed Peter took out his notepad too. I wondered if poor Agnes would find herself in the papers. Between Kyle Nelson and Agnes, Peter was amassing some winners.

  “I made sure I left the door secured when I left this morning,” said Peter, helpfully. “I slipped the chain through the lock and tied it.”

  “Thanks for the info,” said Andy. “And the bone.”

  “How did it get out there by the canoe?” said Agnes. “What a mystery.”

  Andy and I looked at each other but didn’t say a word. I knew we were thinking the same thing. We’d both been at the water’s edge near the end of Old Holly’s property. It was possible that someone had taken the bone from Agnes’s car and left with it via the water.

  “Solder was hit with something blunt,” I said.

  Andy nodded.

  “Mind taking Agnes to her car?” Andy said to Peter. Then he turned to Agnes with a stern look.

  Agnes raised her hand.

  “I know,” she said. “I shouldn’t have taken the bone. I’m sorry about that. I hope you don’t need to arrest me, but I understand if there’s a fine. I’m an upstanding citizen, and I’m prepared to face the consequences.”

  “I appreciate that, Agnes,” said Andy. “And when I figure out the protocol, I’ll be in touch. For now, I would ask that you stay on the island until further notice.”

  Agnes nodded seriously. Then she rose and left with Peter’s hand under her elbow.

  “I appreciate that you think the murder was premeditated given the serious problems Solder posed for so many of our suspects, but there was a thread found under his nail,” I said. “Someone must have taken the map from him. Did you find any prints on the batteries?”

  “Only Leigh’s,” he said.

  “Suggesting that there was no elaborate plan ahead of time to kill Solder. No one was tampering with her walkie-talkie to separate the two of them,” I said, hoping Andy was beginning to see this story my way.

  “Or, that the murderer wore gloves,” he said. “Do you believe Agnes’s story about losing the bone?”

  “You don’t seriously think Agnes killed Solder, do you?” I said. “I have it on good authority that the hit on the head didn’t kill him.”

  “Can you please leave your cousin Kate alone?” said Andy. “The police have their own connections. Official connections, in case you’ve forgotten. I’ll have the forensics team confirm that the bone was the cause of the bump on the head. Someone could have removed the bone from Agnes’s car.”

  I thought of the Candleers’ admission that Agnes had joined the fray when we’d jumped in to help free Leigh. I wanted to tell Andy about it, but I’d promised her I wouldn’t. Unless I had real evidence that she had a hand in the crime I would stick with that promise, but I knew we had to consider all suspects.

  “What would her motive be?” I said. “She was the one who suggested the search to begin with.”

  “I assume Agnes’s motive would have to do with Patience Cooper and Nancy Holland. You’re the one who’s been arguing that the murder has to do with the two girls,” said Andy. “You tell me.”

  I looked at my feet, then the ceiling fan, then clicked the stapler on Andy’s desk. Anything to avoid his look. I couldn’t submit to him that Emily and I had spoken about how female relationships work and had concluded that the events didn’t make sense. Nor could I explain that I was going to meet Brenda and try to reach Patience tomorrow.

  “Go home,” said Andy.

  “None of this would be happening if I hadn’t found Patience Cooper. There’s no way I can let this go, so why not tell me what you know?”

  “Because there’s a murderer on the loose, and I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said.

  “I’ve heard that before,” I said.

  “And I still mean it,” he said.

  I don’t know what Andy was expecting, but I wasn’t moving. I stayed in the chair until he opened a file in front of him. I thought he was going to read something to me from it, but he didn’t. He took his time, reading its contents to himself. I was beginning to think he was willing to wait me out, but then he pulled out a page.

  “What is it?” I said.

  “You win,” he said. “Since you’re the one with a chummy connection to Leigh, I’ll share this with you. Then you go home.”

  “Deal,” I said.

  “We had a man search Solder’s room at his B and B,” he said. “He found an engagement ring. Looks like Solder was planning to propose to Leigh.”

  My heart sank for Leigh.

  “She said he seemed weird around her, especially this morning. That must have been why. Before Neal proposed to Emily, he was so crazy she thought he was taking her out to break up. Leigh jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

  “Yeah,” said Andy, throwing the paper back into the file.

  “Leigh Paik told me that she had permission to descend back down the well again tomorrow,” I said.

  “And it will be a strict, professionals-only outing. Plus, Fontbutter. He’s savvy. With Solder gone, he was able to convince the chief that he’s representing Old Holly. Personally, I think Solder had a point about inviting too many spectators,” he said. “Look where it got him.”

  “Andy,” I said, “you weren’t going to keep tomorrow’s plans from me, were you?”

  “What you didn’t know literally wouldn’t hurt you,” he said. “No one is allowed down the well or in the vicinity. This is a crime scene.”

  “At least tell me this. If Leigh’s still a suspect, why are you letting her back to the crime scene?” I said.

  I looked at him carefully.

  “Because of the path in the woods that you, Stella, found yourself. Along with the cut in the tree, it was your discovery that cemented the possibility that this was a premeditated crime. In addition to the suspects from yesterday, we’re looking for someone completely outside of those who were at the excavation. So, I will both keep an eye on her, and use her for any leads I can find. Anyway, I’m going down with her,” he said.

  “What kind of suspects outside of the ones on island?” I said.

  “Solder was a purist,” said Andy. “You saw it yourself. He rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. In the last year alone he had issues with people in Egypt, Iran, and even the Metropolitan Museum in New York.”

  “And yet you still want to head down that well tomorrow,” I said. “Admit it. You want to see if the map is down there after all, don’t you?”

  “I want to look for clues, and I need a guide to get down there,” he said. “I also have questions for a suspect, which I believe I can effectively ask while at the crime scene.”

  “Let me come with you,” I said.

  “I’ll take loads of pictures for you,” he said.

  “But we’re coming at this from different angles,” I said. “You might not know what to shoot. What you find down there might hold the answers to this case.”

  “I’m sure you can see that there are a lot more leads right here at ground level that need to be investigated first.”

  I disagreed, but I knew there was no use arguing. Some things were better done alone.

  Chapter 16

  When I left headquarters, I went to the Marine Home Center, which sells everything you might ever need, from hardware to throw pillows. I’d seen Leigh and Solder’s climbing equipment. I knew it was unlikely I’d be able to replicate it, but I needed a plan to get down the well, which I
now planned to do.

  My strategy was to wander the hardware aisle until something caught my eye. Problem was, the store closed at five o’clock, and it was now after four. I didn’t have much time to be picky.

  As I passed the tool section, I grabbed a headlamp with an elastic band. I figured that would be better than using my cell phone’s flashlight option. I knew that one of the Girl Scouts had left behind her bike and helmet when her parents had come to pick her up by car after we discovered Patience. The elastic band could fit over the helmet.

  I also tossed a small nylon backpack into my basket. It was just big enough to hold my phone. The real challenge was still how I was going to get down the well. I remembered Cherry throwing the pebble over its side this morning, and the silence that had followed.

  At the end of an aisle, I saw a bunch of ladders. I knew that sneaking onto Old Holly’s property with a huge ladder over my shoulder was about as clever as calling Andy from Marine Home and telling him my grand idea to head down the well, alone, tonight. Luck, however, was on my side. Tucked behind a couple of huge metal ladders, hanging from removable display hooks, I saw a few rope ladders.

  “Come on, come on,” I whispered to the inventory, my eyes grazing over the stock. One advertised a five-foot length. Another ten. Neither seemed long enough. I was calculating how many sheets I’d need to tie to the bottom of the ladder for extra length when I saw a few others hidden behind a box shoved between the ladders and the display. I pushed it aside, learning, as I did, how much noise a ten-foot aluminum ladder can make, but my efforts were worth it. Down below, I was rewarded with a little blue bubble on the top of the rope ladder’s packaging that said DELUXE X-TRA LONG, FOR BUILDING USE. EQUALS FIVE STORIES. Even better, the top end of the ladder had a sturdy hook, unlike the others. I imagined I could sling the hook over the side of the well, thereby saving myself from Nancy’s fate.

  “Stella?”

  I turned to find Shelly, the Girl Scouts troop leader, walking down the aisle with a basket of acrylic paints.

  “Whatcha got there?” she said.

  “This?” I said, from behind the hefty bundle in my arms.