Two Birds with One Stone (A Marsden-Lacey Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Sigrid Vansandt

  Martha and Helen waved goodbye and watched Lana float like a warm Louisiana breeze down the corridor and through the main doors.

  “She’s definitely got charm,” Helen said smiling as the hospital doors slid shut.

  “You know, I love that southern accent. It’s delicious,” Martha said thoughtfully. “Hmm…Are you hungry?”

  “Oh for Pete’s sake, Martha. We just ate. Twice. Come on. Let’s go see Piers. We’re going to have to go to the museum again. I left my briefcase. I don’t know where my head is these days.” Helen stood up and walked towards the hallway and Piers’ room.

  “Let me get the soup out before we knock on the door. We need to butter him up a little if we want to get a look at those videos.” Martha riffled through the substantial bag. “Helen, wasn’t there a package or something Mrs. Thyme gave us to give to Piers? It’s gone. Maybe it fell into the floorboard of the car. I hope it’s there.”

  The girls found the door to Piers’ room and began to knock but hesitated when they heard two men talking within. Martha held her finger up to her lips in a hush signal and both women listened in on the conversation.

  Piers was talking. “I’m waiting for the laptop. Helen and Martha are supposed to be dropping it by soon. No one has the password but me, so I doubt if there’s any way the video files could have been tampered with. Besides, why do you want to see them? Please tell me, Louis, you didn’t off Carstons.”

  Martha and Helen raised their eyebrows at each other but kept their ears close to the door.

  “Piers,” Louis Devry said in a nervous voice, “of course I didn’t kill him but those videos are going to be requested by the police and there may be something in them I…well you see…Okay, Piers, I need to be frank with you about something delicate.”

  “What are you two doing out here with your ears pressed against the door?” came a strong and commanding voice from behind Martha and Helen.

  They jumped and went stiff. Slowly turning around, they raised their gaze upward to find themselves staring slack-jawed into the pugnacious face of Nurse Edda Davis.

  Chapter 21

  MARTHA, FEELING SMALL, STUTTERED, “WE were waiting to see when it was okay to go in.”

  Nurse Davis’ expression implied she wasn’t buying what Martha was selling. She pursed her lips in distaste and pointed repeatedly with a jabbing motion at where they’d been sitting. “Ladies, visiting hours are over in ten minutes. You may wait out by the nurses’ station.”

  Since she wasn’t moving, they meekly backed away and then turned around and walked toward the row of seats they had left earlier. The girls sat back down like chided children.

  “We aren’t going to have a chance to talk with Piers,” Martha said.

  Helen stared at the door. “We may need to hide somewhere until she’s gone. Visiting hours are almost over and we need to talk with Piers before tomorrow. If Chief Johns gets hold of those video files, you can bet he won’t want to share with us.”

  “Was that Devry’s voice we heard?”

  “Sure sounded like it.” Helen was quiet for a second. “What’s on those videos that Devry doesn’t want anyone to see?”

  “Maybe he’s the killer but he’s lying about it and he’s trying to make a deal with Piers. We need to get in there and feel Piers out. Tomorrow, he might be less willing to discuss things, if he has time to think about it or if Johns tells him not to.”

  They watched the clock above the nurses’ station get closer to the six o’clock hour. The best plan they hatched was to wait in the ladies room near the stairwell until the coast was clear. Then they could make their way into Piers’ room and hide in his closet, if a nurse came to check on him.

  At ten after six, Louis Devry walked down the hall towards them. He stopped and said hello but excused himself before they could ask why he missed his appointment with them.

  “He was in a snit,” Martha said.

  “I wonder why?” Helen smirked.

  “We won’t be able to see Piers now. It’s too late.”

  “Follow me.”

  The girls rose quickly and hurried towards the room. Not seeing Nurse Davis patrolling the hall anywhere, they found Piers’ door open. With great caution, they peeked in to make sure he was alone. There stood Nurse Davis settling a tray on the moveable bed table. They backed away quietly and made a beeline towards the ladies room.

  “Okay, let’s give it ten minutes and peek out. If it’s clear, we go straight to his room. We’ll have to be quick and quiet. God knows where that woman will be,” Helen said.

  “Our luck she’ll need to use the rest room.”

  Helen and Martha froze.

  “Really?” Helen asked.

  They heard someone coming toward the door talking loudly. The girls frantically jumped into one stall and shut the door. Fortunately, the hospital was an old one from the early twentieth century and not many updates had been made to the bathrooms. The particular stall they bustled into was more like a small closet but someone looking from the outside could see an individual’s feet, if they bent down to check if the stall was occupied.

  “Get up on the back of the toilet,” Helen said. “Hurry.”

  Martha scrambled up as high as she could get while Helen climbed up on the toilet seat. They clamped their hands over their mouths and waited. Trying not to breathe too loudly, they were as quiet as possible.

  The bathroom door swung open and someone clattered around trying different stalls. Hurriedly, Helen pressed her foot against the stall door to make sure it wouldn’t budge. As if on cue, someone pushed on their door.

  “Why won’t it open?” the voice of Nurse Davis asked. “Everything in this hospital is falling apart,” she grumbled. Going down the line she entered another stall and the door latch clicked.

  Helen motioned for Martha to follow her. She opened the stall door and they crept out of the bathroom with only a small creak from the door’s hinges. As quick as mice, they scuttled into Piers’ room to find him glowering at a plate full of nasty-looking noodles.

  “Hey. What are you two doing here?” he asked with a big smile spreading across his face. “You look like you’re on the run from the law. I’ll get dressed and you can break me out of this place. What do you say?”

  Martha and Helen dropped into the two chairs across from his bed and let out two big sighs.

  “We’ve been playing a game of cat and mouse with your Ms. Davis.” Martha fumed. “DCI Johns ought to give her a job at the Constabulary. She’d make an incredible detective.”

  “Not to mention a deterrent to crime.” Helen weighed in with a laugh.

  “Doesn’t seem to have deterred either of you,” Piers said with a knowing smile. “It’s way past visiting hours so both of you are in it deep, if she catches you.”

  “Let’s get down to business then,” Martha said. “We brought your soup and we brought your laptop. What say you start sipping on the one and let us have a look at the other?”

  “Martha,” Helen said taken off guard. “What about being subtle?”

  “We don’t have time for subtleties, Helen. Attila could come in any minute. Piers, the videos may show who knocked-off Sir Carstons. The police want the videos and it sounded like Devry has an interest in them as well. We think you ought to look at them and see who might have tried to take a potshot at you. Whoever it is has decided Helen and I are dispensable too. What do you say?”

  “Give me the laptop,” Piers commanded, laying down his spoon and a cracker.

  They watched him open the security program and log in. He found the file for the day of the murder.

  “The great thing about this system is the surveillance is always kept in the cloud. Only someone who has the password to my cloud can access the videos. I’ve not shared my password, so all should be as it was,” Piers explained.

  He clicked on the file for last Friday, the day of Carstons’ murder. They watched the video load. Piers sipped on his soup. “I love Mrs. Thyme�
�s soup. The food here is horrific.”

  “Spoiled baby,” Helen teased.

  “Look. If you put the video on slow fast-forward we can see people coming and going all morning. The time is in the right-hand corner.” Martha reached over to click on the arrows in the video program’s screen.

  As the video played, they saw Sir Carstons enter The Grange. He circumvented the reception desk and looked around furtively. Unhooking the red rope blocking the way up the grand staircase, he quickly ascended the stairs and out of camera view.

  “What is our friend, Carstons, up to?” Piers asked sardonically. “We’ll change cameras and see where he’s going.”

  Piers opened another file from a camera labeled “Upstairs Hallway.” Sir Carstons appeared, walking down the hall and into one of the rooms to the right. A shadow moved across the floor and a figure came out from another side room.

  “It’s Louis Devry. He’s following Carstons,” Helen said.

  All three peered intently at the video. Soon Carstons came out of the room carrying a satchel and headed back towards the stairs followed by Devry. They appeared to be agitated and in a hurry.

  Piers switched the camera back to the “Reception Room.” There they picked up Carstons coming down the stairs. He was carrying the satchel and Devry bounded down the stairs behind him apparently shouting at him. Carstons held up the bag, taunting Devry who made a quick move, whisking it out of Carstons’ grasp, then leaping behind the reception desk.

  Surprised, Carstons leaned over the reception desk and tried to grab the satchel while Devry leaned as far back as he could to avoid his grasp.

  “Wow. They’re going at it,” Martha said with a chuckle.

  Devry clutched the bag to his chest and pointed his finger at Carstons, yelling something and pointing toward the door. He reached into the satchel, dragged out an oversized orange envelope, and then threw the empty bag at Carstons.

  Carstons picked it up and made a stabbing motion with his index finger while obviously yelling something at Devry. He turned and stalked out The Grange’s front door. The clock on the video said “14:30 Friday.” Devry walked out of the room toward the library.

  “This seems to be in keeping with what Louis was telling me,” Piers said. “Sir Carstons was blackmailing Louis. He knew that Louis had lost his job at Harvard for some indiscretion and had offered to keep his mouth shut if Louis would turn a blind eye to Carstons helping himself to a few items of value at The Grange. According to Louis, Carstons showed up that day to make good his demand. Louis says he found him in one of the rooms going through some of the poetry books and hand-bound journals worth an enormous amount of money to crooked collectors. It was money Carstons sorely needed for legal fees.” Piers glanced at Helen.

  “What’s in the envelope he took out of the satchel? Is it the poetry journal?” Martha asked. She had recognized the manila envelope and wondered if it could possibly be the one Mrs. Thyme found and gave them earlier that day.

  “Louis says he took it back to his office. He wanted Helen to check it out to make sure it wasn’t damaged in any way.”

  “Oh,” Martha said. Something didn’t fit. She shifted topics. “Carstons left The Grange alive though. I should be arriving in about thirty minutes and Devry must have been in his office.”

  They fast forwarded the video until they saw Martha walk through the door, peek over the counter then wander down the hallway towards the library. The time counter showed the minutes ticking by and then they saw Carstons sneak back into the hall. He moved around the reception desk. The video jumped and then only the reception area was visible. Sir Carstons had disappeared into thin air.

  “That’s odd,” Helen said. “Where did Carstons go? Wait. Look. There’s Martha and me coming into the room.”

  From that point on in the video, everything happened as expected. Though they replayed the video multiple times, the same section of the video showing who killed Carstons was gone. It had clearly been removed.

  “Someone knows your password, Piers, and they’ve altered the video. Almost everyone in the house last night and the night of the party had access to your laptop,” Martha said. “Do you keep a copy of your passwords anywhere?”

  “Not where they’re easily found. Someone might have seen where I hide my password book. I’m not sure.”

  “Of course,” Helen said. “Whoever was in your office the night of the party was probably trying to get to the videos. That’s why Martha was pushed down the stairs because they think she knows or might have an idea who they are. I think it’s Louis Devry. He had every opportunity and he must have been desperate to get those videos. I think he’s our killer and the person who shot you, Piers.”

  There was a stunned silence in the room once she finished. Helen shifted her intense gaze from Piers’ face to Martha’s.

  Piers pushed away the laptop and sighed. “Louis has already come here this afternoon and explained himself. Yes, he was aware of the video surveillance system after the fact, but he wouldn’t have any way to know my password or where to find my password book. As for shooting me, I don’t know. He’s a good shot but he would have had to be an incredible shot. Whoever shot me somehow missed Lana. The bullet went right over her shoulder and entered here, basically missing every major organ.” He pointed to the area around his clavicle.

  “Piers, someone was desperate to get you out of the way to save their own skin. You said it yourself that night. Helen and I heard you as you came out of your office saying the surveillance system had been installed and no one but you would have known of its existence. The killer had to have either overheard your conversation or been a part of it. Since I find it unlikely that DCI Johns is our murderer, that only leaves Devry,” Martha argued.

  “Hold on Martha,” Helen joined in, “anyone might have been listening as they came out of the library and learned of the cameras being installed. The house was full of people. We heard him talking so others could have, too.”

  “No one else has a motive, Helen, well at least not one we’re privy to.”

  “The question is who would have been able to learn of your password, be adept at accessing the video software and then editing the video? Are there back-ups of the video, Piers, stored somewhere?”

  “I’m cursing myself because I didn’t invest in the surveillance system sooner. Never foresaw someone committing murder and then manipulating the evidence from within our ranks.”

  Female laughter from outside the door made Piers, Martha and Helen go rigid. Helen jumped into the lavatory while Martha made a quick dash for the wardrobe.

  “All done with your meal Mr. Cousins?” a young nurse asked, coming into the room.

  “Oh yes, thank you,” Piers replied.

  “Where did you get the soup?”

  “My friend brought it to me from home.”

  “Best not let Ms. Davis know about it. She doesn’t like people bringing patients food in from the outside.”

  “I promise not to tell, if you don’t,” Piers said.

  There was a rattling of dishes and they heard the door swing open.

  “You’re safe with me, Mr. Cousins. Get some rest. It’s almost lights out and Ms. Davis will be down to give you your bath and tuck you in. Good night.”

  The door closed and out popped the girls from their hiding spots.

  “Okay. We’ve got to dash, Piers,” Helen said in a hurried voice. “The police will be by tomorrow to see those videos. Might not mention that Martha and I have already had a look. In the meantime, we’re going to The Grange to check on some things. Whoever might have guessed at your password is extremely dangerous.”

  “That’s right. You’ve got to be careful. They’ve tried to cover their steps by editing the videos but they don’t know if there’s a back-up, which makes things dicey.” Martha said. “Did you tell Devry there wasn’t a back-up?”

  “No. He didn’t even ask. That means he has to be innocent, right?”

  “Not exactly
. It may simply mean he isn’t showing his concern which might make him look guilty. All it takes is a phone call to the software company you bought the system from, to find out about the options you purchased,” Martha said.

  “We’ve got to get out of here. Piers, we’ll call later. Keep your cell phone close. If you think of anything, call us,” Helen said.

  The girls waved good-bye and peeked out the door. Two nurses sat in their station while a custodial person waxed floors with a loud machine. The noise was a great cover for slipping down the hallway unnoticed.

  “No time like the present,” Martha said and off they went.

  Half-way past the station, one tired nurse looked up and gave them a quizzical glance but simply shrugged and went back to her reports. They whipped through the reception area. When they were within yards of the exit, an alarm blared above their heads.

  Hospital personnel raced toward Martha and Helen. The girls froze and stared with horrified faces at their pursuers. The sliding doors of the entrance flew open and an emergency team yelled at them to stand back. Martha and Helen jumped to the side and watched the hospital staff rush past them pushing a gurney with a man on it.

  The commotion swirled around the girls and then moved rapidly away down the corridor. Helen and Martha stood gawking after the moving maelstrom.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Martha said.

  “I’m right behind you.” Helen agreed.

  Chapter 22

  WAYFORD AND MARSDEN-LACEY WERE only fifteen minutes apart. The day had been extremely long and both Helen and Martha were ready for a glass of wine, soft beds and sweet dreams. However, they had one last errand to run.