by Josie Belle
“I’m sorry, Maggie,” he said. “You’d better come inside.”
Sam took Maggie by the elbow and steered her through the front door and into the parlor. The fireplace was going, and the toasty room fought off the evening’s chill.
Lying on the sofa with an ice pack on his head and wearing a shirt that was splattered in blood was Doc Franklin. Cheryl Kincaid was sitting in the chair beside him, obviously monitoring the situation.
“Doc!” Maggie cried and she raced forward to kneel by the couch. “Are you all right? What happened?”
Doc turned his head with a grimace, and then his blue eyes fastened on Maggie like she was a life raft in a perfect storm.
“I fell,” he said.
Cheryl let out a tut of disapproval, and Doc frowned at her.
“I did fall,” he said.
“Yeah, after she cracked your head like an egg,” Cheryl snapped. “That gash on your skull took seven stitches. What if I hadn’t come by when I did? It’s a darn good thing I keep a first aid kit in my car for softball emergencies.”
“Well, if you hadn’t come by, then the police wouldn’t be here now, would they?” Doc retorted.
“Yeah, and she could have killed you.” Cheryl glowered.
“Alice did this?” Maggie gasped.
“No!” Doc said.
Sam blew out a breath, and Maggie met his gaze. He jerked his head toward the door and she nodded.
“I’ll be right back, Doc,” she said.
Sam closed the door behind her, and they stood in the hallway.
“What’s going on, Sam?”
“Cheryl stopped by after softball practice to check on Doc. She heard a ruckus, and when she came in, Alice was standing over Doc’s body clutching a frying pan. Cheryl called us and started first aid on Doc. When I arrived, Alice admitted that she whacked him with the pan,” Sam said. “But Doc says he fell.”
“I’m not following,” Maggie said. “Why would Doc—?”
“He’s protecting her,” Sam said. “She even handed me the frying pan that she beaned him with. There’s enough blood and hair on it to make a crime scene investigator do a cartwheel, but—”
“But if Doc refuses to say it was her or press charges, then there really isn’t anything you can do,” Maggie concluded.
“Exactly,” Sam said. “I need your help. I need you to get Doc to tell me what is going on.”
Maggie pressed her fingers to her temples, as if she could ease the headache she felt coming on with some direct pressure.
“Look, he’s already confided in you,” Sam said. “I know you won’t tell me what he said because you think you’d be betraying him, but Maggie, this is getting serious. I’m going to be left with very few options shortly. One of which will be to haul you in and put you under oath.”
“Sam, I can’t—” she began but he interrupted.
“Just hear me out,” he said. “I need you to get him to talk to me. There’s a murderer out there, and right now all the evidence keeps circling back to the Franklins. This little scene here did not help. I’m going to have to question Alice and Doc, and unless I get some answers, arrests will be made.”
“You may have better luck with Alice,” Maggie said. “I don’t think Doc is going to tell you anything that he thinks may harm her.”
“So far Alice won’t tell me why she hit him,” Sam said. “But I’m guessing it has something to do with Vera Madison.”
Maggie thought about how angry Alice had been. Could she have been angry enough to hit Doc? Maggie couldn’t imagine that Alice could be angrier now than she’d been when she walked in on them all those years ago. Unless there was something Doc hadn’t told her, like maybe he and Vera had started seeing each other again.
“Maggie, I repeat, there is a murderer out there,” Sam said. “Someone wanted Vera Madison dead. The only leads I have are that she was found at Doc Franklin’s office with a suspicious syringe beside her, and her late husband’s first daughter has shown up to claim her inheritance. If you know anything, you have to help me before someone else gets killed.”
“I’ll try,” Maggie said. She knew Sam was right. Doc had to tell him what he knew, all of it. “Maybe if I talk to him alone?”
Sam frowned. He didn’t like it.
“Well, he’s not going to talk in front of you,” she said.
“Fine,” he said. “But could you at least try to get him to talk to me first?”
Maggie nodded. They reentered the room to find Cheryl still clucking over Doc. He was waving away pain medicine and trying to sit up.
“There’s no sign of a concussion,” he said. “I’m telling you she…I just grazed my head is all.”
“Ms. Kincaid, can I talk to you?” Sam asked.
“Sure.” Cheryl dropped the pills on the table and strode toward the door. “Maybe you’ll listen to me.”
Maggie took the seat beside the couch. Her gaze met Sam’s as he closed the door. She could tell he was hoping she’d have better luck than he’d had.
“Doc, what happened?” she asked. “And do not tell me you fell.”
Doc pressed his lips together, and for a moment she thought he was going to completely ignore her.
“Doc, there is a killer out there,” Maggie said. “It’s someone who knows about you and Vera. Why else would Vera have been found in your office? Someone is trying to make it look like you killed her.”
Doc looked at her with shock. “But why?”
“I don’t know,” Maggie said. “But if you don’t start telling Sam what is going on, he’s going to have no choice but to arrest you—or Alice.”
Mentioning Alice was the trump card in her argument, and Maggie watched as Doc registered her words. He looked angry, then concerned and then resigned.
“What happened, Doc?” she asked.
He started to speak, but she shook her head.
“Sam needs to hear it, too. Please.”
Doc studied her for a long moment, and Maggie felt as if everything rested on what he saw on her face. She tried to look resolute, hoping he’d realize he was out of options. It must have worked, for, after a moment, he gave her a reluctant nod.
Maggie jumped up from her seat and crossed the room to the door. She yanked it open to find Sam standing right there. She waved him in and then looked back at Doc.
“Yeah, Cheryl should hear it, too,” Doc said. “So she understands.”
The three of them sat down and Doc took a sip of water. Maggie noticed that his hands were shaking, and she wondered if it was anxiety or exertion or both.
“Alice is not at fault,” he said. His voice was surprisingly strong. “I am. I killed Vera Madison.”
Chapter 24
“What?” Maggie gasped. This was so not what she had expected.
“I did,” Doc said. “I called her into my office on the pretext of having a new medication for her, and instead I filled a syringe with morphine, and I killed her.”
“Doc! I don’t believe it,” Cheryl said.
“Me either,” Maggie said. “Sam, don’t listen to him.”
Sam ran a hand through his hair. He glanced up at the ceiling as if praying for patience.
“Dr. Franklin, do you really want to play it this way?” he asked.
Doc gazed at the three of them but without really seeing them.
“It’s because I cheated on Alice,” he said. “With Vera.”
Cheryl sucked in a breath, but Sam didn’t show any surprise, and Maggie knew it was because he had already begun to suspect something between Doc and Vera. Doc had probably just confirmed what he’d already been thinking.
“It was almost thirty years ago,” Doc said. “Things were complicated at the time—not that I’m making excuses.”
“Did Alice just find out about this now?” Cheryl asked. “I mean, no wonder she smacked you upside the head with a frying pan.”
“No, she knew.” Doc looked as if he were struggling to find the words for wha
t he had to say next. “A letter came to the house a few weeks ago. It brought back a lot of hard feelings.”
Doc glanced around the room, as if looking for the letter. Maggie saw a crumpled-up piece of paper on the floor by his desk in the corner.
She glanced at Doc, and he nodded. Maggie rose to retrieve the paper. She uncurled it and spread it flat against her lap.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Read it.”
Maggie scanned the letter before she cleared her throat and read it aloud. It was from Courtney, and it was short and to the point.
Courtney had found out, upon her mother’s death, that she was really Buzz Madison’s daughter. She intended to claim her share of the inheritance. Upon going through her mother’s personal things, she found a letter from her father, Buzz, stating that he believed his current wife, Vera, was having an affair.
The letter went on to say that Buzz planned to disown Vera and leave the Madison estate in its entirety to Courtney. Since this had never happened, Courtney felt that Vera had manipulated Buzz into keeping his will the way it was, but Courtney had filed a motion to set aside Buzz’s current will, and she would be investigating who Vera might have had an affair with. She planned to prove the affair existed and reclaim the Madison estate as her own. Several names were listed at the bottom of the letter, one of which was Doc’s.
“So you were on her short list of men Vera might have cheated with?” Cheryl asked.
“Yes, I think Courtney suspected that I was Vera’s lover,” Doc said.
They all looked away, uncomfortable with an almost seventy-year-old man using a term like lover. Maggie knew it was ridiculous, but still she felt embarrassed for all of them, especially Doc.
“Vera, was in a state about the letter and thought she might lose everything. She wanted me to lie to the judge and tell him that we’d never had an affair,” Doc said. His voice got tight, and he stared at the floor when he said, “I refused. We fought, and that’s why I killed her.”
They were all silent. Sam looked at Maggie over Doc’s bent head and shook his head. He wasn’t buying it.
“So why did Alice hit you then?” Sam asked.
“She was mad that I’d been talking to Vera again,” he said.
“So Alice did hit you?” Sam asked.
“No, what I meant was, she was just holding the pan when I fell and hit my head on it,” Doc said. His eyes were worried, as if he knew he’d just messed up.
“I’m going to have to take you to the station, Doc,” Sam said.
Doc nodded as if he’d expected as much. Sam stepped out of the room, and Maggie followed.
“You can’t take him to the station this late at night with a head injury,” she protested.
“He just confessed to murdering Vera Madison. I have no choice,” Sam said. “You know as well as I do that he confessed to protect Alice. What he doesn’t realize is that just makes Alice look guilty as hell. Sheesh, even her own husband thinks she killed Vera, and no wonder. Is this what he told you?”
Maggie opened her mouth to deny it, but one look at Sam’s face and she thought better of it. He was not going to be happy no matter what she said. She nodded, and he frowned.
“I’ll go with you, Doc,” Cheryl said as she and Doc stepped into the hallway. She looked at Sam to make sure he understood that this was not negotiable. “Under arrest or not, we need to monitor him for signs of a concussion.”
“Fine, you can follow in your own car,” Sam said.
“Cheryl, I’ll come with you, if that’s okay,” Maggie said. “And we’ll pick up Max on our way.”
Sam lifted an eyebrow at her tone.
“I was going to suggest that,” he said.
“Uh-huh,” she said. She had a feeling the detective in Sam was just itching to put one or both of the Franklins behind bars and declare this murder solved.
“You don’t trust me,” he said.
“Do I have any reason to?” she asked.
To her surprise Sam looked a bit hurt, but then he gave her a small smile.
“Yes, actually, you do. I would think you, of all people, would know that I am trustworthy,” he said. “And when it comes to my job, I am very thorough.”
He stepped forward to assist Doc, and with Cheryl on one side and Sam on the other they helped Doc out to the waiting squad car. Maggie followed, feeling like she had lost an argument somehow, although she was pretty sure she hadn’t engaged in one.
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Max said. He had finished his shift at the pizzeria and had been parking on the street in front of his apartment when Cheryl and Maggie spotted him. “Courtney thinks if she can prove that Vera cheated on Buzz, then she can take the whole estate, and Doc has confessed to a murder we are quite sure he didn’t commit because he’s protecting his wife, who Sam thinks might have committed the murder.”
“In a nutshell, yes,” Maggie said.
“But that’s crazy,” Max said. “The Franklins aren’t killers. And, as you know, I’m not an expert on estate law, but it seems to me that once the estate went through probate and was passed on to Vera, then it became hers to do with as she chose.”
“Except for the letter,” Cheryl said. “Would a judge allow a letter Buzz wrote when he was married to Vera about not leaving her anything if she cheated, if it was proven that she did cheat?”
Max blew out a breath. “It’s not impossible, but it is highly unlikely. I mean, that’s some serious legal-eagle maneuvering. I wonder who her attorney is.”
“Do you think she has one?” Maggie asked.
“She’d have to,” he said. “I only met the woman briefly, but does she strike you as the type to have come up with this by herself?”
Maggie looked back at Max.
“You’re scary smart. You know that, right?”
Max looked embarrassed. “So I’ve been told. Hey, you’ve got some blue spots on your nose.”
“Paint, it’s just paint, all right?”
“It’s fine,” Max said with a shrug. “I just thought you should know.”
Cheryl parked in the police station lot, and the three of them climbed out of her car. While Max and Cheryl headed toward the station, Maggie set off for her car, which was still parked in front of her shop.
“Where are you going?” Cheryl asked.
“I have a quick errand to run,” Maggie said.
“What is it, Maggie?” Max asked. He didn’t sound thrilled by her self-direction, and Maggie wondered how much she should tell him.
“I’m going to find out who Courtney’s attorney is,” Maggie said. She stomped her feet to chase the cold out of them and rubbed her hands together.
“How are you going to do that?” Cheryl asked.
“I’m betting that Bianca knows who it is,” Maggie said. “Courtney strikes me as the type to hire the best, and she’d definitely want to rub that in Little Sister’s face. Here’s the thing: I don’t think Sam would approve of me doing this, so if you two don’t mind, could you not tell him what I’m doing?”
“When he asks where you are, what should we say?” Cheryl asked.
“Tell him I had to run to the shop to close up the windows,” Maggie said. “I plan to do that later, so it’s not a complete lie. But if you get the chance, tell Doc the truth. Maybe it will keep him from making more ridiculous confessions.”
“Even if you find out who Courtney’s attorney is,” Max said, “how do you think that will help us?”
“Well, at the very least we’ll know what we’re up against,” Maggie said.
“I can’t argue with that,” Max said. “Good luck.”
She waved as they headed into the squat red-brick building, and then she hurried to her own car.
Maggie drove quickly out to the Madison estate. It was completely dark now, and the night air had a definite pre-winter chill in it. She was glad she had grabbed her wool coat when she’d left her shop earlier.
As she pulled up in front of the big h
ouse, she noted that there were several lights on. And the front door was wide open, as if someone had left without bothering to shut it behind them.
So intent was Maggie on the front door that she didn’t notice the person standing in her car’s path until the headlights shone on the ghostly figure in white running toward her. Maggie screamed and slammed on her brakes.
Chapter 25
“Maggie! Oh, thank goodness! You’ve got to help me,” Bianca cried.
She ran around the front of Maggie’s car, wrenched open the passenger door and jumped inside as if the car were a life raft in shark-infested waters.
Maggie put a hand on her chest. She was pretty sure her heart had managed to squeeze out through her ribs in fright.
“What are you doing out here at this time of night?” she asked.
Maggie knew she sounded exactly as she had the night she’d found her daughter, Laura, climbing back in through her bedroom window one prank-filled Halloween evening that had left their house woefully low on toilet paper.
“It’s Courtney,” Bianca said through chattering teeth. “She’s gone crazy.”
Maggie turned the vents so that they blasted heat toward Bianca. She appeared to have just gotten out of the shower. She was wearing a thick, white terry cloth robe. Her long brown hair was wet and hung down her back in limp strands. She was without her glasses, and she squinted at Maggie as if trying to make out her expression.
“Explain,” Maggie said. She fished in her backseat until she found the fleece blanket she kept for Josh when he fell asleep in his car seat. She wrapped it around Bianca’s legs, which were an alarming shade of blue.
“I was taking a bath, and I had the radio on,” Bianca said. “I didn’t hear her come in. I’m not even sure how she got the door unlocked, but the next thing I knew, she was trying to yank a chunk of hair out of my head.”
“What?” Maggie asked.
Bianca shuddered and burrowed deeper into the blanket. “I got away from her, but then she tried again, so I knocked her down, grabbed my robe and ran.”
