The Icing on the Corpse

by Mary Jane Maffini

  Who better than a police officer in uniform? And I knew just the one. I was certain I had it figured out. I just had to wait for an answer from Conn McCracken to confirm how she got into the SUV. Which reminded me, Randy Cousins was still out there. Tall, strong and carrying a gun.

  It gave another meaning to the need for police protection.

  While I waited for various well-stirred pots to boil over, I had areas where nothing was cooking. Mainly I needed to find out whom Elaine had seen or talked to from the time she picked up the coffee from the WAVE office until she showed up at Lindsay's place. Given the limitations of my bail restrictions, this was proving tricky.

  But I knew one person I didn't have to stay away from, and I was smiling as I rang her doorbell.

  “Merv take the day off?” I said when Lindsay peered through the glass. She opened the door and gave a weak grin.

  Good start. Not everyone liked my jokes.

  “Actually, he took the day on.”

  “You mean, he's here?”

  “I mean he's back at work. He seems to be getting better, and his doctor said he could go back to work part-time.”

  “Great news.” Great because he and his gall-bladder wouldn't be there to run interference.

  “You're looking better yourself, Lindsay.” I don't know why I said it, since it wasn't true.

  “Am I? Well, as they say, life goes on.”

  She sank wearily onto the sofa, and I took the chair.

  “I need to talk to you about Elaine and the murder. I know it's tough for you, but I'm trying to understand what goes through the mind of a woman under Benning's spell.”

  She blinked. “Elaine wasn't under his spell.”

  “Right. And she didn't kill him either. But somebody did. I need to figure out what would have pushed that person to murder him. But I don't want to upset you any more.”

  I had worked up that piece of dialogue and practiced it on my way over. The truth was I felt like shaking her. It was obvious at the funeral she was grieving for Benning. But she took me by surprise.

  “I like you better when you're yourself, Camilla. Nobody is going to fall for the phony sympathy.”

  My turn to blink. “That obvious, am I? Good to know. Let me start again. You were genuinely grieving at the funeral.”

  “It's not impossible to love someone who's dead.”

  “I learned that the hard way. But it's not the issue. When he was alive, he terrorized you. He made you an emotional hostage. You broke free with a lot of help from Elaine, and yet he kept his hold on you. He had the same hold on Rina. She went out to meet him despite the danger. What compelled her?”

  She gazed out the window. “I don't know why anyone would do that.”

  “Yes, you do. Because you did it too.”

  Her back stiffened. Bingo.

  “No.”

  “The night he was killed, you left the house.”

  “I didn't.”

  “You did. And you'd better tell me about it. I am not the enemy, Lindsay.”

  “It isn't true.”

  “You planned to meet him that night, and something terrible happened. Is that why your cream cashmere tunic and pants were missing in the morning?”

  “They're here somewhere.

  “If they're here, let's see them.”

  “You can't. I gave them away.”

  “Okay. Who did you give them to?”

  “I dropped them in one of those boxes for the Sally Ann.”

  “Which one?”

  “I don't remember.”

  “People are weird. When they give away this season's latest style in cashmere, they don't drop them into boxes and forget about them.”

  She was crying. I felt like a shit. But that didn't matter, because I feel like a shit half the time, and we were getting somewhere. It took another minute before the fight went out of her. “He called.”

  “What did he say?” I felt a little rush of blood to my head. “Why in God's name would you go?”

  She held up her hand. “Look, this is hard for me to admit. But I don't need you to yell at me.”

  I took a deep breath. “Right. Sorry. But you're an intelligent woman. And you took such a risk.”

  “It didn't seem dangerous to me.”

  “After what happened to his wife? After he beat her to death?”

  She raised her chin.

  I tried to calm myself. No point in shouting at the victim. It wasn't up to me to decide whether she should have had more sense, which she should have. Lindsay still wasn't the bad guy.

  “I hadn't heard about Rina.” She had a little resistance left.

  “Don't get mad. I'm trying to understand. You were hiding out.”

  “Yes.”

  “Terrified he would come after you.”

  “Yes.”

  “We were there to protect you.”

  “Yes.”

  “What could he have said to make you…” I took a breath.

  “Stupid?” she said.

  “Well, you went to meet him. In spite of everything you knew.”

  “I'm not sure I understand it myself. He contacted me.”

  “How?”

  “By phone.”

  “But we were sitting right in this room all evening.”

  “Everyone had flaked out when I woke up at about eleven-thirty. I crawled up to bed. He called on my cellphone. I keep it next to my bed.”

  “Okay. So he phoned.”

  “Yes, and I spoke to him.”

  “You didn't try to wake us up?”

  “I was half-asleep when I answered. I don't know what I thought.”

  “Or if.”

  “He said he was hurt. He sounded faint.”

  It took a lot of effort not to scream that he couldn't have called. He would have been dead long before.

  “He said he had been hit by a police bullet during the escape. He had lost a lot of blood. A lot.”

  “Go on.”

  “He had been hurt again when he chased Alvin, I guess.”

  “He said that?”

  “He didn't mention Alvin in particular, but he told me he'd bumped someone with a car and then hit his head and he wasn't feeling right.”

  “Okay.”

  “He thought he was going to die. I pleaded with him to turn himself in. He believed the police would kill him. He'd never even stand trial. I tried to reason with him, but it was no use.”

  I asked myself if I could fall for such a stupid setup.

  “I'm sure you find this unbelievable.”

  “Who am I to talk? I made the wrong move after a phone call once and two people died as a result.”

  “Someone died as a result of this.”

  “But that wasn't your fault.”

  “Maybe. I didn't kill him. I just did what I thought I had to.”

  “What happened?”

  “I tried to convince him he'd be better off with medical attention. He was getting upset. He was almost incoherent. His answers didn't make sense. He wanted to say goodbye to me. He said he loved me, and he was going to die. I believed him.”

  I had a hard time with the pleading look in her eyes. “So then what did you do?”

  “I went back downstairs. Everyone was snoring.”

  “Where was he?”

  “I believed him. I took my cellphone. I thought I could get close enough to see what was happening and then call for an ambulance.”

  “The cops didn't see you?”

  “No, I left from the basement parking.”

  “What? This house was surrounded. Two cops in the front.

  One in the back. You couldn't get out of parking without being seen.”

  “My neighbour's in Florida for the winter. I have her keys. I took her car. I wore a scarf on my head and a pair of glasses. It's what I've been doing since I've been here, every time I left the house. I thought I'd nod at the cops and then…”

  “They could have stopped you.”

  “Yes
. I was ready. I would say I was feeling panicked. What could they do? I didn't have to tell them about Ralph.”

  “Words fail me.”

  “I realize how stupid it was. But anyway, it didn't matter, because they were asleep.”

  “All three of them?”

  “The one in the back of the house had his nose squished right up against the window.”

  “Did you see the officers in the front?”

  “The one with the mustache had his head back against the headrest.”

  “And the other one?”

  “I didn't notice. I didn't hang around to see. I floored it and headed out.”

  I was so caught up in Lindsay's story I didn't even hear the front door open.

  Twenty-Six

  What the hell are you doing, Camilla? I whirled. “Merv. I didn't hear you come in.”

  “I guess not.” In one leggy move he reached the sofa.

  “Lindsay's telling me what happened the night Benning died.”

  “It's time for you to hit the road, Camilla. Lindsay's been through enough.”

  “We're almost done.”

  “No, you are done.”

  “Merv, it's me now or the police in fifteen minutes.” In twenty years, I've never seen him look at me like that. “Go ahead, Lindsay. Where did you meet him?”

  “In the park by the Rideau River in Sandy Hill.”

  “What?” said Merv.

  “Shut up, Merv,” I said.

  “Listen, Camilla…”

  “Why there?”

  “Strathcona Park. We used to spend time there in the summer. Stroll along the river. Watch the swans.”

  “Thirty below. And you met him outside.”

  “I had no choice. I had to convince him to get to a hospital. I thought if I told the media he was afraid the police would kill him that would be enough to keep him safe. In protective custody.”

  “Go on.”

  “I parked the car in that lot at the end of Mann Avenue and I ran along to the area between the upper and lower park. No one can see you there.”

  “You weren't afraid?”

  “In a deserted area on the coldest night of the year, I didn't expect to find many bad guys.” One of her tiny smiles flickered.

  I felt like saying there'd been at least two bad guys. Benning and whoever killed him.

  “The path was trampled down a bit. I thought I'd see him.”

  She started to cry.

  “He wasn't there?”

  “No.”

  “No one was there?”

  “No.”

  “There was a lot of blood on the snow. A lot. Frozen. I shouldn't have touched the area. But I thought he might be under it, so I started digging. A lot of the bloody snow got on my sweater.”

  “Your sweater? You weren't wearing a coat? It was thirty below.”

  “I was, of course, but it wasn't zippered. I left in such a hurry. I was in a state and my medication didn't help my thinking.”

  “At least that would make some sense. So you dug through the snow. And you didn't find anything?”

  “Nothing. I made sure. I looked everywhere. I checked the bushes by the side of the river, and I called his name. I was half out of my mind.”

  “How long were you there?”

  “A long time. I was ready to pass out from the cold.”

  “And did you call the police?”

  She shook her head.

  “Okay, let me recap. You left us zonked, passed two police cars, with sleeping occupants, and drove in the middle of the night to meet the man who'd threatened your life, shot a police officer, bit off someone's nose and beat his wife to death while she was under protective custody That it?”

  Merv was whiter than a snow bank.

  “Yes,” she said in a small voice.

  “Okay. And then you found what you thought was his blood, and you got some of it on you.”

  “It was crazy.”

  “Sure was crazy. Lucky for you, Ralph Benning would have been long dead when he called you.”

  “What?”

  “He was already dead.”

  “He…couldn't have been dead.”

  “He was.”

  “Take it easy, Camilla,” Merv said.

  I was taking it easy. I didn't say Benning would have been nine-tenths of the way frozen by the time Lindsay's cellphone had even rung.

  “He talked to me.”

  “Someone talked to you.”

  “But…no, it was Ralph. It must have been. No one else knew about our spot.”

  “He was dead, Lindsay. We know that.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “You said his voice seemed different, and you attributed it to his injuries and perhaps the cold.”

  “Yes.”

  “Maybe his voice was different because it was someone else pretending to be Ralph. You took a lot of medication that day, and you were under serious stress. Someone was banking on it.”

  “But why?”

  “Most likely to implicate you in the crime. Getting the blood on yourself was a good start. You may have left footprints.”

  Merv towered over me. “She doesn't need this conversation.”

  “Oh yes, she does, Merv. She needed to have it before. Elaine is going to be prosecuted, and she didn't do it.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Elaine wants to be in the media spotlight. She has a political agenda, and you know it.”

  “That's not the point. Someone killed Benning. Not a woman trying to protect herself from him. Not self-defence, but what looks like cold-blooded murder. Planned. Executed with a certain flair.”

  “You're not going to badger Lindsay anymore.”

  “Take a hike, Merv. Or sit here and keep quiet. Because Lindsay talks to me or I call McCracken.”

  “No.”

  “The choice is not yours. Lindsay. What will it be?”

  “Merv, maybe you could get us some coffee or tea. I knew I would have to talk about this. I prefer Camilla, even though…”

  I thought I heard Merv say “even though she's one cold bitch” as he stomped toward the kitchen.

  “Okay, we have to work on the voice, Lindsay.”

  She was back to twisting her hands. “Not just the voice. It was the words he used.”

  “Like what?”

  “My special name and expressions. No one else knew them. Even the place. It was ours.” I kept my mouth shut. “He wouldn't tell anyone.”

  “Someone must have found out and used it to entrap you. Look, this is hard. Let's get through it. Then I can leave you alone.”

  “I'll do my best.”

  I tried not to react to her look of defeat. “You arrived there, you found the blood.”

  “Snow, bloody snow.”

  “Okay, you dug through the snow and you got it on your clothes.”

  “I thought he might be under it. I was digging with my bare hands, and it got on my sweater. Some splattered on my coat, but it's red and it didn't show the same way. I was able to clean it off. Then I took it to the cleaners.”

  Of course. The red coat that I'd noticed at the funeral. It had been hanging in a different spot on the morning after Benning's death. I'd missed that detail. What else had I missed? “But the sweater? That wasn't here when the police came the next day.”

  “No.”

  “Where was it?”

  “In the car, I turned on the heater and the snow started to melt on my sweater and stain it…”

  Red.

  “I couldn't stand it. I took it off, I stuffed it in a plastic bag. The leggings were stained too. I threw them in a garbage can on the way home.”

  “Okay. And that's why they weren't here.”

  “Yes.”

  “Somebody set you up.”

  Merv slid back on the sofa with a tray of coffee cups.

  “It must have been someone who knew your secrets and Ralph's and knew how you would behave. That someone tipped the police.”

  Lindsay c
hoked out her next sentence. “Little Girl He always called me Little Girl. He wouldn't tell anyone that. He couldn't.”

  Merv said, “Maybe he didn't mean to.”

  “How…?”

  “Drugs can make you say things you don't want to. Maybe he'd been drugged by his killer. How else would he have been vulnerable?”

  “Sure,” I said. Lindsay wanted to delude herself about the man she'd loved. But I knew there had been no good in Benning. He wouldn't have needed to be drugged to share intimate details with a confederate. Or another lover. Whichever Randy Cousins turned out to be. “There could be many reasons. The point is you were fooled. You were intended to be fooled. The killer set you up. An excellent diversion.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I see that.”

  Good. “If Elaine hadn't confessed in full view of the world, the police would have received another phone call telling them to check your clothing for bloodstains.”

  “Maybe the killer will still try to implicate me.”

  “I don't think so. This tells me the killer didn't have it in for you in particular, otherwise the call would have come already.”

  She didn't seem to be paying attention. She frowned. “There was something wrong about that place.”

  “What?”

  “Well, it was the way the snow was crushed.”

  “Crushed?”

  “Yes, near the river. The little spot where we used to meet.” Her voice broke. “A special place. The snow was broken down to the edge of the river where we used to go. Like something had been dragged.”

  I kept quiet. What could I say to make this any less painful for her? I could tell Lindsay was making an effort to steel herself.

  “Something heavy,” she said.

  I nodded. I was beginning to figure out what might have happened to Benning.

  “Perhaps a body.” Her lip trembled. I gave her hand a squeeze. “It looked like someone dragged him to the river and dumped him.”

  “That would explain a lot.”

  “You mean how he froze so quickly?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, God. I cant think about it.”

  “Okay, were almost done. Okay. You saw tracks in the snow.”

  “Yes. But they'll be gone. The snow's melted.”

  “There may be something underneath. Can you show me where it was?”