Old Loves Die Hard (A Mac Faraday Mystery)

by Lauren Carr

  The matter of the tea taken care of, Sabrina looked up to notice that both Mac and David were covered in soil after their run-in at Nancy Brenner’s home. “What happened to you?”

  “Someone took a couple of shots at us,” Mac said.

  “People are always shooting at you,” Sabrina scoffed between bites of her cookie. “Your day isn’t complete until you get shot at, at least twice.”

  “Oh, Mac!” Roxanne leaped off the sofa and threw her arms around his neck.

  The embrace was so unexpected that a lock of her auburn hair went up his nose. Roxanne had never made it a secret that she believed he wasn’t good enough for her little sister. The last time Mac recalled them embracing was on his wed-ding day after Christine had ordered them to do so.

  Roxanne continued to hold onto him while sobbing onto his sweater. “Chris didn’t deserve to die like that. I was supposed to take care of her.” She dissolved into incoherent blubbering.

  Over the sobs, Mac introduced David to them as Spencer’s police chief. When he added that David was investigating the murders, Roxanne erupted with a fresh round of sobs.

  “I’m sorry you had to wait,” Mac apologized. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “That’s okay. Your girl has been taking very good care of us. Though she’s a little slow with that tea.” When Sabrina waved her hand her jewels caught the rays of the sun streaming through the window. “I’m glad you’re here, Chief. You were going to be my next stop. What progress have you made in finding the killer?”

  Bracing to be interrogated, David stepped further into the room. With Sabrina refusing to budge out of the chair, Mac and he resembled army generals reporting on the war’s progress to the queen. “We’re making progress.”

  “Do you have any suspects yet?”

  “A few,” David answered.

  “Who?”

  “I can’t say.”

  “Why not?” Sabrina demanded to know.

  “Because I don’t believe in showing my hand until it’s time to show my cards,” the police chief replied.

  Sabrina’s voice was low and threatening when she told him, “Christine was my sister. When you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. I want to know what happened. Was it an accident or did someone kill her?”

  “She was drunk,” Roxanne said. “She had called me that night from the penthouse and she was out of her mind. I told her to get something to eat and to go to bed and sleep it off, but she was crazy out of her mind. She kept saying that she was going to kill Stephen.” She sobbed. “I never thought she would’ve done it.”

  “Someone else was in that room,” David told them.

  “Who?” Sabrina asked.

  “We don’t know yet.”

  “Are you sure?” Roxanne’s eyes filled with fresh tears.

  David said, “We’re finding evidence that others wanted Stephen Maguire dead. There’s a possibility that Christine was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Someone did try to poison him a couple of weeks ago,” Sabrina said.

  David turned to Roxanne. “The Washington police told us that you were on the scene of that incident.”

  Mac hadn’t thought it was possible for Roxanne’s face to become paler, but it did.

  “Only because I dragged Christine there,” she answered the police chief. “I thought it would do her good to go out and meet other people.”

  Sabrina said, “They couldn’t prove that Christine had any connection to whatever it was Stephen ate that was poisoned.”

  Roxanne explained, “I finally convinced the investigators that if they didn’t have any proof she did it, then to leave her alone. They didn’t, so they did.”

  “That was after I made a few phone calls.” Sabrina caught David’s eye. “It pays to have friends.”

  “Who else at that party could have slipped that arsenic to Maguire?” David asked Roxanne.

  “Everyone was there,” she said. “His wife Natasha was there. She hated the air he breathed.”

  “But Maguire didn’t get a restraining order issued against Natasha Holmstead,” the chief pointed out. “He got the order issued against Christine after he’d been poisoned.”

  Sabrina bristled. “That was a political move on his part. He did that to make Roxanne look bad so that he’d get appointed Deputy U.S. Attorney instead of her.”

  “Was there anyone on his enemy list named Nita?” Mac asked, thinking about the servant who had slipped into the Inn. “Mexican. Didn’t speak a word of English.”

  Sabrina let out a laugh. “Nita? That sounds like that girl I had working for us for a few years.”

  “Who?” David asked.

  “A few years ago I had a cleaning woman working for me,” Sabrina said with a wave of her hand. “It was purely charity on my part. She had family in South America that she was trying to bring to the United States.” She pointed across the room at her sister. “She worked for you first. That’s how she came to work for me.”

  Roxanne said, “Everyone felt sorry for her. She worked in housekeeping at the courthouse. She spoke very little English and was desperate for money to have her family brought here. So a bunch of us would have her clean our houses, and we’d pay her under the table.”

  “I had her clean my house for quite a few years,” Sabrina said, “which she was totally inadequate at doing anyway. Then I had to drive her home and she would be talking at me and didn’t speak any English. Thank God I remembered it from when we were kids. I tell you, her working for us brought it all back to me. We used to speak fluent Spanish when Big Daddy was the ambassador in Brazil. Then, after coming back to the United States and not using it—but when Nita worked for us, it all came back like riding a bike.”

  “But Portuguese is Brazil’s native language,” David said.

  The glare Sabrina shot in the police chief’s direction prompted a chuckle from Mac. The correction exposed the underlying message that Sabrina was truly relaying: She was a former ambassador’s daughter and a woman of importance to be treated as such.

  “Actually,” Mac explained to him, “before they went to Brazil, Christine and her sisters learned Spanish from their nanny, who happened to be an illegal immigrant willing to work cheap.”

  “Big Daddy took very good care of Nonnie,” Sabrina said. “She lived like a queen compared to the other illegals working for our friends’ families. Money hasn’t changed you one bit, Mac. You’re still a bastard always trying to make us look bad.”

  He went on to explained, “When they were in South America, they never bothered learning Portuguese because so many people understood Spanish. Plus, their father sent them to an English-speaking private school.”

  “I did learn Portuguese. So did Roxanne.” Sabrina pointed across the room to her sister. “She speaks both languages like a native.”

  “Nita spoke Spanish,” Roxanne returned to the subject of the maid. “She was from tiny village—where in South America I don’t remember. Extremely polite. I felt sorry for her until she went weird on us and you ended up firing her.”

  Roxanne recalled, “Then she got weird on us and you ended up firing her.”

  “She was weird.” Gasping, she snapped her fingers at David. “This all happened after Stephen moved in with Christine. She accused him of raping her. He denied it. Of course, no one believed her. I fired her for making such an absurd accusation.”

  “Everyone fired her,” Roxanne said. “She even lost her job at the courthouse.”

  “If he raped her, why didn’t she report it?” David asked.

  Mac knew the answer. “Because Stephen Maguire, with all of his powerful friends and connections, could have had her deported. I’m sure he made that very clear to her. Getting her fired was a warning of what he could do to her.” He asked Sabrina, “If she was telling the truth and he raped her, and she lost everything, where did that leave her?”

  Sabrina was indignant. “At that time, we thought Stephen was a good man
. If we knew then what we know now about him…”

  David turned to Mac. “It’s very possible that if this Nita tracked Maguire down for ruining her life, and Christine, his mistress, happened to be on the scene…”

  “What happened to Nita?” Mac wanted to know. “Do you know where she is now?”

  Roxanne and Sabrina exchanged looks.

  “I have no idea,” Sabrina said. “The last I heard she got evicted from the apartment she was living in for nonpayment of rent.”

  “She could be anywhere,” Roxanne said in a soft voice. “Even dead for all we know.”

  Clearing her throat, Sabrina continued on to the reason for her visit. “There are a few things that we need to discuss and I thought it would be best if we discussed them in person. Big Daddy used to say that it was very poor taste to bring up business at a funeral, and since we believe that this should be taken care of before Christine’s service, I suggested to Roxanne that we come out to see you.”

  “About what?” Mac plopped down onto the sofa. “Christine and I were divorced. All of our business affairs were taken care of months ago.”

  “She never changed her will,” Sabrina said. “You’re still her executor and beneficiary.”

  Mac smiled broadly. “How about that?”

  Roxanne said, “It’s about the lake house. We agreed after Big Daddy died that I would buy Sabrina and Christine out of their shares.”

  Her sister interjected, “That share being the house and the grounds itself, not necessarily everything in it.”

  “Now is not the time to discuss this, Sabrina,” Roxanne warned in a low voice.

  “Discuss what?” she replied in a mockingly innocent tone.

  Wordlessly, Roxanne glared at her sister across the room.

  Curious, David asked, “What?”

  “Big Daddy’s Bug.” Roxanne’s annoyance was evident. “Our father had transferred the title to me when he was sick, before he passed away.”

  “Because he expected you would keep it in the family,” Sabrina said. “He never would have given it to you if he knew you were going to sell it.”

  “It was a broken-down Volkswagen.”

  “It was a classic,” Sabrina told David. “It was a 1978 VW Beetle convertible. We all learned how to drive in it. My children learned to drive in it. I loved that car. We kept it out here on the lake to use as an extra car to zip around in. We get out here today and I find that Roxanne has sold it without even offering it to any of us.” She snapped her fingers in her sister’s direction as if to make her point. “I would’ve bought it if you had had the common courtesy to ask.”

  “Will you just shut up about the Bug already?” Roxanne replied.

  Mac jumped in to say, “My lawyer did tell me that Christine’s name is still on the deed to the lake house.”

  “Because Stephen cheated me,” Roxanne said. “I refinanced my house to pay both Sabrina and Christine for their shares of the lake house. Sabrina signed the deed transfer to me, but Christine never did it. She said she never got the money transfer. When I followed the money, I found when the bank transferred it. It went into her account. When I tried to show her where her account did get the money and suggested that maybe Stephen had transferred it out since she had put his name on all of her accounts, he convinced her that I was trying to manipulate her. She bought his lies and stopped speaking to me.”

  Sabrina said, “Christine was starting to believe us about what a monster Stephen really was when she got killed. Everyone he’s touched has had their lives ruined.”

  “Where have I heard those words before?” Mac asked in a mocking tone. “Oh, I know. I said it to both of you when you let him slither into Christine’s and my bed.”

  While Roxanne hung her head in shame, Sabrina refused to take any credit for her mistake in judgment. “You played a role in all this, too, Mac. So we got bought in by Stephen’s good looks and charm. Most everyone in D.C. did. But Christine wouldn’t have been so easily suckered if you had treated her right.”

  “I did treat her right,” Mac claimed. “Okay, so I couldn’t play ‘keeping up with the sisters.’ What underpaid homicide detective can? But I put a roof over her head and food on the table and the heat on in the winter. Our kids went to good schools and got everything they needed, including braces, and most of what they wanted. Not everything, but most. But, according to you, I never gave Christine enough, because I couldn’t take her on cruises every season or buy her a lake house like Big Daddy’s. You made damn sure that she knew that, every time you got a chance to flash your newest diamond in her face.”

  He pointed his finger at Sabrina. “You asked David here who killed your sister. Look in the mirror, Sabrina. You’re the one who did it. You got her killed. You drove her out of a perfectly good marriage and into Stephen Maguire’s arms.”

  Mac took pride in being fast and observant on his feet. Before he had retired, he was ready for anything. He didn’t know if retirement had made him soft, or if he had let his guard down when it came to confronting a middle-aged suburban housewife dripping in rubies. Whatever the case, he wasn’t expecting it when Sabrina shot out of her chair like a badger out of its den to deliver a handful of claws across his face.

  Grabbing his bleeding cheek, Mac retreated backwards, while she advanced with her claws flying to strike any other part of him that she could rip apart.

  “That’s enough!” Suddenly David was between the two of them with his arms out like a traffic cop stopping traffic in every direction. “Step back!”

  “What’s going on in here?” Archie was at Mac’s side, while Gnarly was barking as if to demand answers as well.

  “How dare you talk like that to me? She was my sister! You have no right!” In spite of the uniform between her and the man who had dared to offend her, Sabrina continued to charge. With her arms flying in front of her in an effort to slap anyone who got in her way, she continued to advance.

  Mac grabbed Archie in a bear hug and the two of them ducked.

  “I said to stop it!” David charged toward her with his shoulders down like a football player taking out the quarter-back. His right shoulder catching her in the middle of her chest, he drove the heavy-set woman backwards and off her feet until she landed with a plop in the chair from which she had begun her assault.

  Silence fell over the manor.

  Her eyes wide, Sabrina’s mouth hung open while she huffed and puffed.

  Archie examined the scratches on Mac’s face. “I’ve never seen a woman scratch someone so deep. And David said my scratches were impressive. I should put some antiseptic on those.”

  Roxanne’s eyes were equally wide while she looked from her sister to David who straightened his clothes and smoothed his hair.

  “Consider that a warning,” the police chief told Sabrina. “Next time I won’t be so nice.”

  Chapter Nine

  It was officially off season on Deep Creek Lake.

  In a matter of days, the autumn foliage had passed its brilliant height. In the setting sun, house lights that had been concealed by the green leaves in the summer now reflected on the lake. The effect was a colorful dimensional illusion visible all the way up at the top of the mountain.

  Mac hoped he and Archie would have the restaurant to themselves with Deep Creek Lake’s population in hibernation until ski season. For what they planned to be a night to remember, they both dressed for a dinner for two that Archie had called Antonio to prepare. Archie looked splendid in a sapphire colored cocktail dress with matching jewels. Mac wore a gray suit with a sapphire colored shirt to match her dress. Seeming to sense his desire to be alone with her, the servers disappeared after delivering the champagne and bread.

  “I’m sorry for Sabrina and Roxanne,” he apologized after sipping the champagne.

  “None of it’s your fault,” she said. “You did warn me.” She took another sip from her glass. “Who do you think did it?”

  “Maguire had a lot of enemies,” Mac sa
id. “I think I was the least of his worries.” He pulled the list of names that he had recreated from memory of the list that David had found. “Can you find out what this list means?”

  She read the names before folding up the sheet of paper and slipping it into her handbag.

  “Maguire had that list in a folder labeled Themis.” Explaining about them being suspects and defendants in murder cases, he asked, “Can you find a common denominator besides that they were all murder suspects who got off?” He added, “I have no idea who Emma Wilkes is. David tried calling her number but her phone has been turned off.”

  Archie reminded him, “There were two murder victims in that room. How can you be so sure Stephen Maguire was the intended victim? What about Christine?”

  “The only one who’d want her dead is you,” Mac said. “Do you even want to go there?”

  She cocked her head at him. “Why would I want to kill Christine?”

  “So that you don’t have to deal with an ex-wife on the scene,” he replied. “You know how the security system works here at the Inn. You probably even had a hand in setting it up. Don’t tell me that if you didn’t set your mind to it, you couldn’t plan and execute a murder. You’ve been trained by the best.”

  “You’re the one who doesn’t have an alibi,” she reminded him.

  “I have Gnarly,” he said, “only he refuses to talk.”

  They looked at each other over the tops of their glasses while enjoying another sip.

  “Do you really think I’m capable of killing someone?” A tremor slipped into her tone.

  He took her hands into his. “Only if you had to.” He kissed her fingertips.

  “Can I speak to you?” Mac jumped when he heard Ed Willingham’s voice in his ear. It was so abrupt and harsh that he could feel the lawyer’s spittle in his ear canal. The lawyer’s face was inches from his own. His expression was so stern that Mac felt like a schoolboy caught cheating by the principal.

  In the far corner of the restaurant, he saw that Ed had been having a dinner meeting with Jeff Ingle. Mac had been so involved with Archie that he didn’t notice them.