A Real Pickle

by Jessica Beck

  I wasn’t so sure of that when I saw the result of his work.

  The canvas sported a series of faintly penciled lines, some parallel and some not, running in all kinds of different directions. Within this grid, there were dabs and splashes of color. Examined up close, it was something a child could do, but as I stepped back, the form on the canvas began to show itself. If I looked at it just so, I could start to see Sarah emerge. Not the girl herself, but a representation of her, at any rate.

  “It’s rubbish,” the model snapped.

  “I don’t know. I think I see where he’s going,” I said.

  Moose looked at me with a startled expression. “Seriously?”

  “Stand back here and look at it,” I said.

  He did as I asked, but my grandfather still shook his head at the sight. “Sorry, but I don’t see it.”

  “That’s because you have a pedestrian eye,” Tristan said, and then he turned to me. “Do you really see what I’m striving to achieve?”

  “I do,” I answered honestly. “I can’t wait to see it finished.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to wait a very long time,” Sarah said. “I’m finished posing for it.”

  “You can’t,” Tristan said. “I need you.”

  “Sorry,” Sarah said as she started to leave. Tristan may have been completely distracted by his sister’s actions and my comments, but I couldn’t afford to let it happen to me.

  I stepped in front of Sarah. “Why did he write you that check?”

  “It’s none of your business,” she said.

  “I already told you. It’s my business now,” I said.

  “I want to know the answer to that question myself,” Tristan said. Was he backing me because he really wanted to know, or was he just returning the favor? As long as it worked for me, I didn’t particularly care.

  “We made a bet, and he lost,” Sarah said.

  “That’s a lie,” I said. “Curtis hated gambling.” I remembered Jeffrey’s comments about his own debts, and his reluctance to discuss them with his employer and friend.

  “That’s true,” Tristan said. “What’s going on, Sarah?”

  “It was for my ex, okay? Are you happy now?” she asked as she glared at me.

  “What about him?” Tristan asked.

  “He threatened to post some embarrassing video of us together on the Internet if I didn’t pay him, and Uncle Curtis agreed to help me.”

  “Why should I believe you?” Tristan asked her.

  “Would I have just admitted it to you if it weren’t true? Why would I do that, Tristan?”

  “Maybe you’re hiding something even worse,” he said.

  Sarah looked at her brother with a sneer, and then moved it on to my grandfather and me. “I don’t have to stay here and take this.” She narrowed her focus to me as she added, “You need to move.”

  I looked at Moose, and he just shrugged, so I stepped aside.

  Once she was gone, I asked Tristan, “What do you know about her ex-husband?”

  “Oh, Nat is a real prize. I wouldn’t put it past him for a second.”

  “How do we find him?” Moose asked him.

  “Is it really all that important now?” Tristan asked.

  “I’d like to know if it’s true,” my grandfather said.

  Tristan shrugged. “I’ve still got his number on my phone from when they were married. I can call him for you, if you’d like.”

  It was odd to have Tristan helping us, but I wasn’t about to turn it down. “That would be great. Could you put him on speakerphone?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  A gruff man picked up on the third ring. “Tris? I never expected to hear from you again.”

  “Hey, Nat. Listen, I just talked to Sarah—”

  “She’s lying,” he said. “I never asked her for anything.”

  “Slow down,” Tristan said. “At least let me finish.”

  “And listen to whatever lies she said about me? I don’t think so.”

  “Answer one thing for me first. You owe me that much, or do I need to remind you?”

  There was a slight pause, and Nat’s voice came back on a little more contrite. “Make it quick.”

  “Did you at least delete the video like you promised?”

  He paused even longer before he answered this time. “If you’re taping this, you know that it won’t stand up in court.”

  “It’s just us,” Tristan said as he made a shushing gesture to Moose and me.

  “I promise you that your sister will never hear from me again.” With the weight he used in his words, I believed him. “Do me a favor and lose this number, okay? We’re finished, too.”

  “Done,” Tristan said, and he reached out and disconnected the call.

  “So, she was telling the truth after all,” Tristan said.

  “After we pushed her some, it appears that she finally did,” Moose said.

  “I still wouldn’t turn my back on her if I were you two,” Tristan said as he turned back to his canvas. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”

  “Without your model?” my grandfather asked him.

  “I can work from memory for now,” he said. Almost absentmindedly, he reached out and turned the music back on, cranking it up to a volume so loud that any further possibility of conversation was over.

  We could still hear the bass booming from outside.

  “It appears that the interview is over,” my grandfather said with a smile. “I was wondering how long your goodwill was going to last. Did you really see something in that train wreck of a painting?”

  “I wasn’t lying,” I said. “I think that it has real potential.”

  “Victoria, do me a favor; never buy art for me.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “At least we got an explanation for the check Curtis wrote for Sarah.”

  “It doesn’t do anything to clear her of his murder though, does it?”

  “No, I’m afraid we’re still stuck with our original list of suspects,” I said.

  “So, who do we go after next?” he asked.

  I didn’t have a chance to answer, though, because his cellphone rang at that moment.

  “This could be important,” he said as he answered it, and I held my breath, hoping that we’d finally get a break in the case.

  Chapter 21

  “Really? Are you sure? Okay, thanks. Yeah, when I can, I will,” Moose said. I didn’t even know who he was talking to, and his cryptic responses certainly didn’t help any. He looked thoughtful as he signed off and put his phone away. “Well, that was interesting.”

  “Who was it?” I asked.

  “Deb finally got my message. She remembers Curtis and his companion, mostly because Curtis barely touched his food, even though he ordered a pretty varied selection off the menu.”

  “He’d lost his appetite lately,” I said. “The only thing he really seemed to enjoy were my mother’s pancakes.”

  “Who could blame him?” Moose asked. “They’re pretty wonderful.”

  “I’m sure that she’d appreciate hearing that, but what else did Deb have to say?”

  “Curtis was there with Charlotte. What’s more, they had an argument, and she stormed off in the middle of the meal. Evidently she made quite a scene doing it, too.”

  “That’s interesting,” I said. “I wonder if they were fighting about him changing his will?”

  “It could be,” Moose said. “The only way that we’re going to be able to find out is if we come right out and ask her.”

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  At the bottom of the steps of the studio, I noticed Humphries walking purposefully toward us.

  “I wonder what’s up with him?” Moose asked.

  “I don’t know, but I have a feeling that it’s not good.”

  “I need you both to come with me right now,” the butler said.

  “What’s the matter? Did we do something wrong?” I asked. His tone of voice was
scolding in nature.

  “Ms. Trane wishes to speak with you immediately.”

  “Wishes, or demands?” Moose asked. “I don’t take kindly to being bossed around by anyone but my wife.”

  “You’re not all that fond of that, either,” I said, and then I turned to Humphries. “What’s really going on?”

  “I’m just doing as I’ve been instructed,” he said.

  “Lead on, then,” I said. “It’s a happy coincidence, because we want to talk to her, too.”

  “I’m afraid this conversation is going to be a little more one-sided than that,” Humphries said.

  “Charlotte might be under that impression right now, but we’re about to show her how wrong she is,” I said.

  Moose nodded his approval. “This is going to be fun. I’m getting tired of tiptoeing around everyone here.”

  “Have we been tiptoeing up until now?” I asked him with a smile.

  “Just wait and see,” he answered.

  “Humphries, if I were you, I’d get out of the line of fire as soon as you lead us to Charlotte. I’d hate to be responsible for getting you into trouble,” Moose said.

  “I’ll be fine,” he said, and I could swear that I saw a hint of a smile in his face before he quickly shut it down.

  “I don’t know what you just said to my niece, but she’s extremely unhappy with both of you,” Charlotte said as we found her holding court in the grand dining room.

  “Sorry about that,” I said, though it was clear to everyone present that I didn’t mean it. “We had to ask some hard questions.”

  “Are you still trying to convince me that all of it was done in the name of this tribute that you are supposedly creating for my late brother?”

  “The only fitting way to end it is to find his killer,” I said, staring right back at her. I’d faced down more than my share of belligerent customers in my past, and she didn’t have anything that I hadn’t already seen. In many situations, the only way to deal with a bully was to back them down.

  “That is utterly ridiculous,” she said. “What qualifications do you have to even attempt that?”

  “We’ve done it before,” Moose said. “Experience is an awfully fine teacher.”

  “You are both bumbling amateurs, and I’ve had enough of your snooping and prying into our lives.”

  “I can understand you feeling that way,” Moose said, “but you don’t have the final say, now do you?” He was actually enjoying this. Confrontations usually left me a little shaky afterward, but Moose always reveled in a good fight.

  “We’ll see about that. I’m taking steps to correct that particular miscarriage myself.”

  “Good luck with that,” Moose said. He was being a bit irascible, and I had no desire to get in his way. Sometimes it was the best way to shake things up, and he was clearly on a roll. “You seem kind of upset right now, is that true?”

  “Why shouldn’t I be?” she asked harshly.

  “I get that. I’m just trying to figure out if you’re madder now, or when you walked out on Curtis at dinner the night before he died.”

  There was dead silence in the room.

  Charlotte wanted to deny it; I could tell when she took that first deep breath, but evidently she changed her mind before she spoke. Moose knew what had happened, so she could see that there was no use trying to say that it wasn’t so. “My brother and I often had words in public,” she said. “While it’s regrettable that I never got the opportunity to make amends with him, it didn’t change how we felt about each other.”

  It was time for me to step in and offer her a little sympathy at this point. “It must have crushed you losing that chance. What were you arguing about?” I asked in my most understanding voice.

  “His plans to distribute his estate,” she said. “It’s all that we ever argued about lately.”

  “You didn’t care for his proposal?” I asked softly, searching for a clue whether she knew about Jeffrey’s new status or not.

  “He was going to give it all away to some charity,” she said. “That money deserved to stay in the family. After all, the family earned it.”

  If she was lying, Charlotte was doing a masterful job of it.

  “Which charity did he have in mind?” I asked gently.

  “Who knows? It changed so often. He couldn’t make up his mind about what to do with it all. I suggested that he leave it my hands, and he laughed at me! Can you imagine? He laughed!”

  Wow. Charlotte had clearly forgotten who she was talking to for a moment and let her true feelings show. Things were not nearly as peaceful between her and her brother as she’d been trying to lead us to believe. While it was most likely true that she hadn’t known about Jeffrey’s change in status as the final and lone heir, it was obvious that she didn’t approve of Curtis’s money going anywhere but his immediate family. Charlotte must have realized how she sounded, because she quickly composed herself again. “My brother loved to goad me into making me lose my temper, and I’m afraid that I succumbed the night before he died. That is something that I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life, but it’s none of your business. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to ask you both to pack your bags and leave.” She said the last bit with all of the weight and authority that being a lifelong Trane gave her.

  “I don’t think so,” a voice said just behind me. I turned to see Jeffrey standing there, Renee by his side.

  “You are on thin ice,” she said to him coldly. “I am quite tired of your insubordinate attitude, young man.”

  “Be that as it may,” Jeffrey said, “You’re going to have to find a way to live with it.”

  “Perhaps for now,” she said, and there was no hiding the threat in her voice now.

  Jeffrey didn’t even let it touch him. Moose, Renee, and I knew why, but I was certain that Charlotte didn’t have a clue. “That’s really all that counts though, isn’t it?” Jeffrey asked, and then he turned to my grandfather and me. “I’d appreciate it if you’d stay on another day.”

  “We’re happy to do it,” Moose said, and I nodded as well.

  Charlotte saw that she’d lost this particular battle, and she wasn’t going to fight it anymore, at least for now. “I have important things to see to,” she said as she stood and swept regally out of the room.

  “What made you come to our rescue?” I asked Jeffrey with the hint of a grin after she was gone.

  “Are you kidding? I heard her yelling at you both from down the hall. Are you okay?”

  Moose smiled at him. “We get worse than that every day at the diner.”

  “I’m afraid that we’re going to need that extra time, too,” I said. “Once the memorial service is over, I have a hunch that everyone is going to be leaving.”

  “Then you just have to work harder,” Jeffrey said. “You can’t let anyone leave until you’ve found out who killed Curtis.”

  “We’re doing our best,” I said.

  “I’m sure that you are,” Jeffrey said as he softened a little.

  “How’s it coming with you two?” I asked.

  “The paperwork is challenging,” Renee said.

  “I’m sure that it is,” I answered. “We’re already in the dining room, and breakfast wasn’t much. Is anyone else hungry?”

  “We could take a break, couldn’t we?” Jeffrey asked Renee.

  “Whatever you’d like to do is fine with me,” she said.

  “Then it’s settled. I’ll get Cassidy to whip us up something special.”

  “Don’t make it anything too fancy,” Moose said. “I’d hate to get spoiled.”

  “I don’t know,” I added. “I wouldn’t mind a little pampering, myself.”

  “Then let’s do it,” Jeffrey said.

  “That was unbelievable,” I said as I pushed my plate away from the table Humphries had set up for us in the library. We’d had brisket, garlic mashed potatoes, and asparagus shoots for the main course, with strawberry shortcake for dessert, and everythin
g had been delicious. It had just been the four of us eating: Jeffrey, Renee, Moose, and me. “I especially enjoyed the company.”

  “I didn’t see any reason to make you eat with the triple threat,” Jeffrey said with a grin. “I figured without Tristan, Sarah, and Charlotte, we might not see as much drama as we’ve been having lately.”

  “I’m pretty sure that Charlotte isn’t going to be happy with you,” I said.

  “At this point, could she dislike me any more than she already does? I for one don’t think so.”

  I wasn’t sure if the power, the money, or a combination of the two had given the chauffeur a new air of confidence, but so far, I liked it.

  “You can probably live without a gold star from her, can’t you?” Moose asked.

  “I’ll do my best,” he said. Jeffrey then turned to Renee and added, “I couldn’t do this without you; you know that, don’t you?”

  She blushed a little from the praise. “I’m not really doing all that much.”

  “Don’t underestimate what you’re bringing to the process,” Jeffrey said. “It’s really nice having someone like you on my side.”

  “Don’t forget about us,” Moose said with a grin. “Or did you remember that we were here, too?”

  “I meant…you know…the paperwork.” It was Jeffrey’s turn to blush a little now.

  “Moose,” I said as I tapped his arm. “Play nice.”

  “What?” he asked as his smile blossomed even more.

  “Don’t pay any attention to him,” I said.

  “Victoria, he’s a grown man. He can take a little ribbing.”

  “He’s right,” Jeffrey said. “What are your plans for this afternoon?”

  “The first thing I’m going to do is see if my cellphone has charged yet,” I said. “I hate to admit it, but I feel kind of naked without it.”

  “They’re handy, aren’t they?” Renee said. “Sometimes a little too handy. I’ve been known to leave mine in my office on occasion just to get a little peace and quiet.”