Shades of Wrath

by Karen Rose Smith

  Caprice nodded, thinking about Grant and how he’d overcome loss and rebuilt his life.

  Dulcina arranged the three mugs on a small tray. Then she plucked a can of whipped cream from the refrigerator door. After she popped the top, she spritzed it on each of the mugs topping the hot chocolate.

  She lifted the tray. “Here we go.”

  Caprice suspected it wouldn’t be long until her uncle had two kittens playing in his apartment, roughhousing, napping, and cuddling. She also had the feeling Dulcina might be visiting them often.

  Time would tell.

  Caprice was following Dulcina back to the sunroom when the cell phone in her pocket played. She took it out to check who was calling. It was Nikki. Caprice took a few steps back into the kitchen and answered it.

  “Hi, Nik. I’m over at Dulcina’s with Uncle Dom. Can I call you back later?”

  “Were you going to tell me you were involved in another murder?”

  “I’m not involved, exactly. I was going to call you later and talk to you about it. How did you find out?”

  “Brett canceled our date for tonight. I guess he wanted me to know his excuse about work was legitimate because he mentioned you. He told me you were on the scene yesterday.”

  “Not until afterward. I was supposed to meet Wendy there for a meeting.”

  “How awful!”

  “It is. And the thing is, I told Lizbeth, Wendy’s right-hand person, that I’d nose around a little. She’s afraid the investigation will drag on and on and she doesn’t want it to affect the work at Sunrise Tomorrow.”

  “I can understand that. Brett sounded a bit harried as if there are lots of people to interview and maybe several suspects.”

  “There could be a score of suspects with abusive husbands and lots of anger floating around. The police have their job cut out for them.”

  “So what do you think you can do?”

  “I’m not sure. The first thing I’m going to do is go back to the shelter and talk to Lizbeth again, maybe a few of the other employees. Then I’ll go from there.”

  “Do you want me to keep mum about this and not tell Mom or Dad or Bella?”

  “Bella knows. I convinced her to adopt a stray cat from the Wyatt property.”

  “You are kidding.”

  “Nope. I didn’t get a call from her this morning, so I guess all is going well. Don’t say anything about the murder to Mom, Dad, and Nana. They’ll just worry.”

  “But Grant knows you’re involved?”

  “He does. I went to him after it happened.”

  “Good. I’m glad. If you two are leaning on each other, then you really are getting closer.”

  “Is that a good thing? If I depend on him, I mean.” She trusted Nikki to be honest with her answer.

  “If you depend on him, maybe he’ll come to depend on you. That is good, Caprice. You’re strong enough that you won’t lose yourself. I know you.”

  “Yes, you do. Probably better than anyone.”

  “Do you want to go to the Harvest Festival together on Saturday? You can catch me up on what’s happening.”

  The Harvest Festival was a huge downtown event every September that brought tourists into their community. It helped rev up business for town vendors.

  “That sounds good. Come over to my place around ten and we’ll leave from there.”

  “See you Saturday. Don’t get into any trouble until then.”

  “I won’t,” Caprice promised, then realized just how hard it might be to keep that promise.

  * * *

  Uncle Dom had been happy at how his visit went with Dulcina and the kittens. He was sure he’d be taking Tia and Mason home soon. He’d left, looking as if he had a new lease on life. After he’d driven away, Caprice had taken Lady for a walk and decided to start collecting information by stopping in at Sunrise Tomorrow. It was late afternoon when she arrived and Lizbeth was in a meeting with the staff counselor. Caprice realized she should have called first, but she wanted to look around the shelter on an impromptu visit rather than a planned one.

  The receptionist, who’d recognized her from the other day, let her in. Rena Hurley, in her early forties, with coal black hair and bright red lipstick, as well as rings on every finger, reseated herself at her desk. After she did, she waved to an alcove on the other side of the room. “There’s coffee and spring water over there, if you’d like some while you wait.”

  Rena had an accent that sounded Midwestern, yet her style definitely wasn’t small-town America. Everyone else Caprice had seen at Sunrise Tomorrow wore comfortable clothes, but Rena was dressed in a pretty burgundy suit with high heels to match.

  “I’m fine,” Caprice said. “I stopped in today because I talked to Wendy about sprucing up the facility here. I’d like to take another look around.”

  “Look around all you want, except of course in the private rooms. Did Wendy want to spruce those up too?”

  “She did, but that can wait until another time. That’s one of the things I need to talk to Lizbeth about. Wendy wanted a color scheme that included greens and blues and yellows—colors that are bright and soothing.”

  Rena motioned to the sitting area. “What we have now is mostly thrift shop special. Wendy never splurged. Even with the Wyatt legacy, she intended to keep changes frugal—though we’d have a little more leeway.”

  Caprice could see that Rena was talkative and that could be good. “How long have you worked here?”

  “I’ve been here since the inception of Sunrise Tomorrow. I do everything from paperwork to receiving new clients to coordinating hotline volunteers.”

  “Are you from this area?”

  Rena winked at her. “Did my accent give me away?”

  Caprice just smiled.

  “I’m from Nebraska. But my parents moved to Pennsylvania when I was in high school. I went to college here and got married here. But then . . .” She shrugged. “That didn’t work out. So here I am.”

  Wendy had informed Caprice that Rena’s position as well as Lizbeth’s had been the first paid salaries at the shelter.

  Rena lowered her voice. “I want to see us continue the work we’ve always done, but Lizbeth isn’t Wendy.”

  Before Caprice could pursue that direction, women in conversation emerged from the hall that led to another area of the facility. There were about a dozen of them, and Caprice guessed they might have come from a workshop or a class. She noted many of them held rolled-up mats under their arms. Caprice had taken yoga classes years before, and the mats looked like those she had used.

  One of the women separated from the others and came over to Rena’s desk. She was wearing camel-colored, loose-legged yoga pants along with an oversized off-white T-shirt with Sunrise Tomorrow’s logo printed on the front. She wore the type of shoes that Caprice associated with rock climbers that were close-fitting and flexible. Her light brown hair was short, curly on the top of her head and above her ears, and straight, close to the neck in the back. Practical.

  Rena motioned to her. “Caprice, this is Evelyn Miller, our yoga instructor. Evelyn, Caprice De Luca. Wendy hired her to decorate the Wyatt estate and spruce up our space here.”

  Evelyn stretched out her hand and Caprice took it, looking into very blue serene eyes. Evelyn’s hand was warm and dry, and she had a friendly grip.

  “I’ve heard about you,” Evelyn said with a smile. “You have the reputation for helping to sell houses quickly. Do you use feng shui when you stage?”

  Feng shui decorating was all about harmony. “I don’t call it that,” Caprice said. “But I always try to create a good flow of energy and let in plenty of natural light. I declutter as much as the client will let me and create good vibes with color too. I think we all want our house to be a place that lifts us up.”

  “You’ll use those concepts at the Wyatt estate?”

  “Most assuredly, and here too. The public areas are sometimes hard to clear of clutter.”

  Evelyn nodded. “Exactl
y. Fresh flowers in vases help too. I try to bring in a bunch at least once a week.”

  Caprice noticed a tall vase, filled with yellow and white chrysanthemums on one of the side tables by a sofa.

  “Do you arrange them yourself?” Caprice asked.

  Evelyn nodded. “I do. In fact I teach a class on flower arranging at Green Tea Spa. I teach yoga there too.”

  “I took yoga a few years ago and enjoyed it. It’s better exercise than most people believe when they think about yoga. I try to swim laps twice a week, but yoga would be a nice change.”

  “I have one open class at Green Tea for anyone who wants to drop in when they feel like it and then another that’s progressive with committed students.”

  There was something very calm about Evelyn, and very steady. She imagined the woman was a good presence to have in a place like this where emotions as well as activity could become chaotic.

  The door to what used to be Wendy’s office opened and Lizbeth emerged. She introduced Caprice to Heather Davis, one of the counselors. Heather was in her fifties, gray haired with plenty of lines around her eyes and her mouth. She looked like a woman who had seen it all. She excused herself and crossed to the door that led outside.

  After Caprice said good-bye to Rena and Evelyn, Lizbeth motioned her into her office. “Heather’s in a hurry because she’s meeting a client for a cup of coffee. Sometimes women don’t want to come here, or become associated with Sunrise in any way. Heather tries to accommodate that.”

  “This really is a wheel with a lot of spokes,” Caprice noted. “And you’re going to be the center of it, making it all keep spinning.”

  “That’s what I hope to do. How can I help you today?”

  Lizbeth seemed calmer than the day when Wendy was murdered. But Caprice could tell energy was bubbling just below the surface. This was a woman who liked to keep moving.

  Just as Caprice thought that, Lizbeth went to the bulletin board on the wall, plucked a sticky note from it, crumbled it, and tossed it into the waste can.

  “I know something about Wendy’s present-day life, but nothing about her past and her family,” Caprice explained. “Can you fill me in?”

  With a spin around on her brown flats, Lizbeth moved to the front of her desk. “I’ll try. Wendy and I became close over the years. You can’t work beside each other like we did without sharing things.”

  Caprice supposed that was true. You became almost like family when you worked long hours together.

  “Wendy lost her mother when she was around five,” Lizbeth began. “But even back then, her father was successful, working in finance, something with hedge funds. His father before him had been successful, too, so she came from money and she was used to moving in the best circles. She’d gone to private schools and socialized with other wealthy families. She was attending college at the University of Delaware—Delaware is where she was from—when she met and married a man whose family had money too. He moved them to York to open a branch of his family’s business. But money can’t buy happiness, and the longer they were married, the more he abused her.”

  “But if she had the means to get away—” Caprice began.

  “You’d think that would help, wouldn’t you? Even if her husband controlled all her money, you’d think the fact that her dad was wealthy would have saved her sooner. It didn’t. She stayed in the marriage because she loved her husband. He’d go for months acting as if he loved her, but then he’d hit her. Afterward he’d be remorseful and he’d say he’d change. But of course he didn’t. It’s an old story.”

  One Lizbeth was familiar with? “I’ve been doing reading on domestic violence, and that’s the pattern, isn’t it?”

  Lizbeth nodded. “So many things kick in with that kind of situation. Background, former treatment by males, the way your dad raised you. Wendy had a good dad, but she was too proud to go to him. Nevertheless, she was smart. She devised a plan and managed to see a lawyer. Together they came up with an exit strategy.”

  “Explain exit strategy.”

  Lizbeth perched on the corner of her desk. “Her exit strategy was to leave her marriage without putting herself or her loved ones in any danger. That’s often difficult to do.”

  “So what was the exit strategy?”

  Lizbeth’s eyelids fluttered down for a moment as she pulled together her thoughts. “Wendy saved everything her dad sent her for gifts. She took a post office box and asked her father to send all of her mail there. He didn’t question it because he just thought it was part of her lifestyle. If her dad or any other relative sent her presents, and she could keep them secret from her husband, she returned them for the cash. Since she was home alone a lot, she managed to sell some things on an auction site. She set up bank accounts in her own name. In some ways, she was luckier than most because her husband didn’t suspect a thing.”

  “Why do you think that was?”

  “He thought he was in total control, that Wendy wouldn’t dare do anything he’d disapprove of.”

  “Because of threatened retribution?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Was that enough to get her out?”

  Lizbeth shook her head. “She found out the combination of her husband’s safe. Once a month he stashed more cash in there to use for gambling in Atlantic City. She began siphoning off a little at a time. One night he gave her another battering because he didn’t like what she’d cooked for dinner. She’d had enough. She felt she had enough money saved. She went to the ER, had photos taken, filed charges, rented an apartment, and left him.”

  The courage that must have taken, Caprice thought. It was hard to imagine the fear and survivor’s instinct that must have run through Wendy.

  “What happened with her husband? I also read that so many women are in danger after they leave because their exes go after them.”

  “Rick begged her to come back, but she remained steadfast. She’d kept a journal from the first time he’d hit her, and she’d taken her own photos so that she had a record of everything. She warned him if he did anything to hurt her or her dad, she’d go public with her journal and the photos and his family would be humiliated.”

  “That could have revved up his anger.”

  “She was taking a chance and she knew it. But I think she also knew him. Apparently he had some sense of reason. He didn’t want to hurt his business or his reputation, or his family’s pedigree. Wendy finally told her father what happened. He was a heavy investor and sponsor when she started Sunrise Tomorrow. It’s grown to this—a safe haven, counselor advocate programs, and group meetings so that women and their children can break free of the cycle of abuse.”

  “You said the network extends far beyond here. What did you mean?”

  Lizbeth hesitated as if she didn’t want to give away too much, and Caprice could understand that. But she must have decided she could trust Caprice, at least a little.

  “I’ll just give you an example. Wendy’s father lives in Delaware. He’s helped provide safe passage and shelter for women who need to escape this area. Wendy created a network so no woman or her children have to fear the man they’re escaping from. But she could be pushy and determined and relentless. She made enemies. There’s no doubt about that.”

  “And her ex-husband still lives in York?”

  “Wendy took back her maiden name when she divorced. And yes, he still lives and has his business in York. His name is Rick Grossman. He met with Wendy last week. I told the detective that when they questioned me. So I’m sure he’s going to be on their suspect list.”

  “What is his business?” Caprice asked.

  “His family’s company builds on Add-a-Rooms. You know, sunrooms, that type of thing.”

  “Can you give me the address?”

  “Sure,” Lizbeth said. She pulled a sticky note from a stack on the desk and jotted down the information.

  Right then and there Caprice decided she might have to look into the prospect of considering adding a room to h
er house.

  Chapter Six

  Although the leaves on the elms, poplars, maples, and sweet gums showed no hint of the change of seasons yet, yellow, white, purple, and cranberry-colored chrysanthemums bloomed in pots on porches and along garden walks as Nikki drove Caprice and Lady toward downtown and the Harvest Festival.

  Parking for the mid-September celebration was always a problem with the downtown area cordoned off. The public parking lots filled and the streets on the outskirts of downtown became lined with cars. Many residents near the downtown area opened their yards for cars to park and charged for the privilege.

  Caprice and Nikki were lucky to have their brother living downtown. They drove to Vince’s condo building that had been an old school renovated into apartments. Fortunately, he had a guest parking space and Nikki slid her car into that. His condo building was located in the heart of downtown so they wouldn’t have to walk far for access to the crafts and vendors, the food stands, and the shops that had enthusiastically decorated for the day.

  After Nikki parked, Caprice let Lady jump out of the back seat and they walked along the path that led out to the street.

  “I can’t believe Roz and Vince are skipping this,” Nikki said as they walked. “They actually left town.”

  Lady trotted beside Caprice, her nose high as she caught the aroma of food cooking at the fest.

  “Vince said he found another winery in Spring Grove to take Roz to. But I think the bottom line is that he just wants to be alone with her, not in the middle of a crowd of people,” Caprice guessed.

  “Do you really think he’s going to buy the house you staged?”

  “He’s still thinking about it. I’m supposed to call him if any other offers come in.”

  “But he doesn’t want Roz to put money into it too. So what kind of commitment is that?”

  “A practical one,” Caprice maintained. “At least for him. That’s the lawyer in him. I mean, think about it, Nik. If they put their money together and bought the house, and then their relationship didn’t work out, they’d have to sell the house and split the proceeds. Or one person would have to buy the other out. It would be like settling a divorce.”