Advertisement for Murder

by Nadine Doolittle

  Hector swivelled in his seat to face the councillor. “I don’t know anything about that.”

  Carmichael controlled himself with effort. “We’re trying to keep it out of the press. Penelope is justifiably upset. It doesn’t help that we’re going through a difficult time at the moment. As it happens, she has asked for divorce.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “We’ve been going in different directions for some time,” he said abruptly.

  “No need to explain. I’ll convey your message to Marks. We’ve more or less given up on the case anyway. We couldn’t solve it.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Carmichael said with a grunt of satisfaction as he got to his feet. “When you mentioned blackmail, I thought you were grasping at straws. You can only be blackmailed if you’ve done something wrong and I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “Ever?”

  Anger shadowed his face briefly. “What happened to Jenny was a tragedy. No one in St. Ives wants to go through that again. This ends today. Tell your friend.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  FRANK’S ROOM at the Regent was more luxurious than Avery imagined. She’d pictured Frank Zwick as a down-on-his-luck, football has-been who’d come back to St. Ives hoping to rekindle the romance with his ex-wife and get his life back.

  Not even close. Avery wondered if she knew people at all. Frank was a prosperous, retired computer professional who had a full set of teeth, though he’d lost most of his hair.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked genially when they were settled in comfortable armchairs near the fire. A real fire, Avery noted. The hotel was an architectural gem of Ontario history. It had accommodated royalty in its heyday when St. Ives was a whistle stop between Toronto and Montreal. Now it was a pricey boutique hotel that catered to the guests of the St. Ives Spa and was featured in glossy magazines from one end of the nation to the other.

  This must be costing him a fortune, Avery thought, the subject of money being ever present on her mind these days. A week at how much per night?

  “The older I get, the more I want my creature comforts,” Frank said indulgently. He poured them coffee from the breakfast trolley. “My family wasn’t rich. I’m usually more conservative with my spending, but I’ll be seeing my grandchildren for the first time and I’m in the mood to celebrate.”

  “We’d like to talk to you about the night Jenny Blake died,” Elliot said, getting straight to the point in his usual blunt fashion.

  Frank’s brows shot up but he seemed otherwise unfazed. “I had an idea that’s what you came to talk about. I always thought one day that story would be dug up and people would want answers. Did you know her?”

  Elliot replied. “She was my babysitter the summer she died. She came to our house after work and stayed with me until my mother got home. I was fond of her. We’re trying to determine what happened that night.”

  Frank Zwick eyed him up and down. “Who’s we—vigilante justice? No, let me guess. Retired cop.” He shook his head before Elliot could answer. “No, it’s not that. Something in the investigatory line though. You guys never let a thing go, even when everyone would be better off if you did.”

  The atmosphere had become tense. Avery sought to relieve it. “The truth is we belong to a murder mystery book club. We wondered how hard it would be to solve a cold case. We have no legal authority and you have no obligation to tell us anything. We’re strictly hobbyists.”

  That seemed to put Frank at his ease. He handed them their cups of coffee. “So you’re not compiling evidence to take to court, it’s more the human interest story you’re after.”

  “Yes, that’s it exactly,” Avery said reassuringly. “You were dating Karen Haggerty at the time, weren’t you?”

  “Not that night.” He shook his head and chuckled. “She dumped me right before the party. That was something I didn’t forget, let me tell you. We were friends—or at least I thought we were. I liked her. I felt sorry for her when Duncan dropped her at Christmas to go out with Jenny. She was crushed but she pretended to be cool with it. Putting a brave face on it, you know? I liked that about her. Duncan was my best friend but he could be a real ass.”

  “How did he feel about you going out with Karen?” asked Elliot.

  “Oh he hated it!” Frank laughed heartily. He relaxed back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other. “He was furious. See, he wasn’t serious about Jenny. She was an experiment to see if he could get her away from Jesse. There was no tolerance in those days for anyone who was different. Sutcliffe didn’t act like a guy should act in Duncan’s opinion. He was too gloomy and smart and his clothes came from the thrift store. Jenny was cute. She looked like Susan Dey. We all had a thing for Susan Dey back then.”

  “An actress from The Partridge Family,” Avery said, answering Elliot’s unspoken question. “It was a television show in the Seventies.”

  “I asked Karen to go out with me on Valentine’s Day.” He grinned good-naturedly. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. We were at a party at Carmichael’s house and everyone was making a fuss over Jenny because she was new and she was with Duncan, and if you were with Duncan, you were golden. Sutcliffe was there. Duncan invited him. He’d been after Jesse’s girlfriend since the beginning of school and he finally nailed her—when you’re Duncan, you don’t let a conquest like that fly under the radar. Trouble was he’d invited Karen too. She walked in on Duncan and Jenny necking in the kitchen and she couldn’t put a brave face on it anymore. I was there to pick up the pieces.”

  “That sounds wonderfully romantic,” Avery said.

  Frank stared at her like she was out of her mind. “I suppose that’s what Karen thought too,” he said with a shrug. “It was over between her and Duncan; I was the next best thing to a knight in shining armour. I wasn’t the greatest looking guy in the world, though I had a decent head of hair back then. I wouldn’t complain about those looks now.”

  He got up to refill their cups. “I have no regrets but I think Karen does. I told her about Duncan being jealous and she thought it was funny. We both laughed about it. We had a lot of fun in the beginning. And then July of that summer, the girls were lifeguards and me and Duncan met them at the pool after. He had given Jenny a necklace ... a choker ... something like that.” Frank shook his head. “It really bugged Karen for some reason. Really got under her skin. That night she was suddenly very horny if you’ll pardon the expression, and one thing led to another. I thought she was on the Pill! I didn’t find out until the first day of our senior year. Her mother heard her throwing up in the bathroom and figured it out.”

  Frank set the silver carafe back on the trolley. “Karen tried to keep me out of it, but her parents wouldn’t let up. Old Frankie Zwick, all around good guy, married her to give the kid a name. My father said it was the right thing to do. Wives you can divorce, he said, but blood is blood.” He shook his head, smiling at the memory. “At the time, it felt like the worst thing that could happen to me and it turned out to be the best.”

  “But you divorced,” Avery objected.

  “Sure we did,” he said genially. “We were too immature for marriage. Karen barely tolerated me and eventually I couldn’t stand her either. She’s a hard woman to please. I filed for divorce when Imogene was about a year old. I thought I’d get to see her once in a while, but Karen made it next to impossible. So I wrote her letters, sent her presents at birthdays and Christmas. I made a point of going to her school things. I gave her away at her wedding.”

  He beamed at them. “And now my daughter wants to introduce me to her kids. She has three little boys and they’ve been asking to meet their ‘other’ grandpa”

  “Yes, it’s marvellous,” Elliot cut in. “But back to the night of the murder—according to your version of events, Duncan was dating Jenny in December and you started seeing Karen in February and Duncan objected?”

  Frank’s shiny pate bobbed up and down. “You know it. We even had a fight abou
t it! He called me a traitor for going out with his girlfriend. I laughed in his face and told him I was going out with Karen, not Jenny—Jenny Blake was his girlfriend. The arrogant prick. You know I’m supposed to play golf with him tomorrow?” He shook his head. “I should punch him in the mouth when I see him.”

  “He was jealous about you and Karen?”

  “Not jealous. I think he knew he could get Karen back whenever he wanted. He liked having her in his back pocket—but then I got her pregnant and uh oh.” Frank grinned. “That wasn’t in the plan. I think if that hadn’t happened, she would’ve got back with Duncan by senior year.”

  “But she didn’t.” Elliot frowned. “The timing is all wrong. Karen was already pregnant the night of Jenny’s murder.”

  “Sure, but she didn’t know it then. It was too soon. After the murder, everyone’s parents freaked out. We understand why now, but back then we thought we were invincible. Kids, eh? On top of that, a teen pregnancy and hoo boy, they all clamped down. It’s a different scene today, that’s for sure. Better or worse, it’s hard to say. At the time, it felt like life as I knew it was over. I thought I was going to have to drop out of high school and get a job, but my dad said he’d support us. They took a huge financial hit, my parents.”

  “And Karen’s parents? How did they feel about it?”

  “Not happy.” His boyish cheer soured. “Not happy that I was the father and not Duncan. They liked Duncan; they had nothing good to say about me. I wasn’t ambitious enough. Karen’s mother had pretensions to society. A real nut job, that woman. She was grooming her daughter to be the wife of a politician not an accountant. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t going into accounting. Few people were familiar with computer programming back then. Mrs Haggerty thought computers were a fancy calculator. Oh, and that was another thing—I had to call her ‘Mrs Haggerty.’” Frank mouth tightened. “We might’ve gone the distance if her parents were more supportive, but to be honest, once Imogene was walking, they just wanted me gone. Out of their house and out of their daughter’s life—but God help me if I missed a single alimony cheque. I was on the hook for years until Imogene left home and Karen deigned to get a job. She soaked me but good.”

  “That must have been difficult for a young man in school,” Avery said sympathetically.

  “Difficult?” He broke off with a bitter laugh. “It was soul-destroying. I worked in the evenings and went to school during the day. My father insisted and now I’m glad he did. My parents helped when I got behind with payments. My dad took another job and so did my mom but it was the restrictions on visits with their granddaughter that crushed them. Karen’s parents had the idea that they were calling the shots. They were providing room and board—they got to set Imogene’s schedule.”

  “That’s odd,” Avery said. “I had the impression that Karen only moved home after her parents became too old to live on their own.”

  “That’s the story she tells. She didn’t get her own place until after Imogene went off to college and living with her parents became intolerable. When I was shelling out alimony, she lived rent-free.” He shook off the memory. “Doesn’t matter now. Doesn’t matter a damn. I put all that behind me. Mind over matter, that’s what it is. As I said, I have no regrets. Duncan and I eventually patched things up. I was even invited to his wedding to Penelope.”

  “Why do you think he didn’t marry Karen?”

  Frank looked surprised. “Two words—Imogene Zwick. The Great I Am could never raise another man’s kid. Hell no. Duncan Carmichael was going to have kids of his own. That was a strange conversation if you’re interested in hearing. Duncan gets drunk at his bachelor party and tells me Imogene could’ve been his daughter. I thought he’s being an asshole again and shot back that he could take over the child support payments anytime he liked. Then I figured out that he and Penelope had been trying to get pregnant and nothing was happening. The wedding was a gamble. The Beresford family could help his career and he didn’t want to give that up, but he was also afraid of what he was getting himself into. It was always that way with Duncan. Looking at what another man had and coveting it. That’s how he wound up with Jenny in the first place. The short version of the story—he said if she hadn’t walked in on them, Imogene would’ve been his.”

  “What did he mean by that?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve mulled it over about a dozen times over the years, but there’s no way. Imogene was conceived in mid-July. Karen broke up with me before the party and Duncan wouldn’t have slept with her before then. I don’t think he had a clue what he was saying.”

  The expression on Frank Zwick’s face made Avery think of the old saying ‘the cat that ate the canary.’

  “It’s sad,” he said. “If he hadn’t chosen Jenny, he could’ve fathered Imogene and had more kids if he wanted them. Penelope couldn’t have kids. They tried but it didn’t work out, and then it was too late. And my in-laws—especially that bitch of a mother-in-law—Imogene was the only grandchild they had. Makes you think, doesn’t it?”

  Avery wasn’t sure what to think, but she appreciated the karmic justice in Frank’s story. Elliot had a look on his face that suggested he got more out of it than a sound moral lesson.

  “Where were you the night Jenny was murdered? I apologize if that question gives offence.”

  Frank’s smile thinned. “It does. I’ll answer it anyway because I sure as hell didn’t kill her. I didn’t stick around the party for obvious reasons. I was pretty pissed that I wasn’t welcome because Karen’s house, Karen’s party, Karen’s rules. I rode my bike past the door a few times hoping one of my buddies would come out and I could score a beer to drown my sorrows.” He smiled ruefully. “I gave up around ten-thirty and biked home. My parents were still up when I got in, but seeing as they’re dead, you’ll have to take my word for it.”

  Elliot got to his feet and stretched out his hand. “Thank you for talking to us, Mr Zwick. That was an interesting story. I wish you all the best with your grandsons. You are a lucky man.”

  Frank beamed as he shook Elliot’s hand. “I am, aren’t I? It only took forty-four years of hard work and sacrifice, but I’m a lucky man in the end.”

  Outside on the sidewalk, Avery couldn’t contain herself. “What did you think of Frank Zwick? I’m not ready to eliminate him as a suspect. I’m not sure if we can believe him, but that story he told gives Duncan motive. I think he followed Jenny that night and strangled her in a fit of jealous rage. He’d won the girl but he wasn’t happy with his prize. She was still confiding in Jesse and regretting her choice.”

  “And?” he prodded.

  “And he wanted Karen back!” Avery frowned. The solution had seemed clear a minute ago. She felt like she could see it, that she was very close to the truth.

  “Then why not simply take her back? There was no impediment.”

  “She was pregnant,” Avery said triumphantly. “Frank said Duncan wouldn’t raise another man’s child. He wouldn’t take her back if he knew she was pregnant.”

  “But Carmichael didn’t know.” Marks’ eyes fixed on the middle distance. “No one knew until her mother learned the truth in September. And yet Duncan said Imogene might’ve been his. Obviously he was referring to Jenny walking in on them. If that hadn’t happened—”

  “What? If that hadn’t happened—what, Elliot?”

  But Marks continued to stare with an unfocussed gaze straight ahead, leaving Avery to wonder what he saw that she didn’t.

  Chapter Eighteen

  AS CLUB SECRETARY, Avery wanted to summon the members together that afternoon. Elliot disagreed, saying it was best to meet as usual on Thursday night. “If the perpetrator is watching us, we want to behave as normally as possible,” he said.

  She had to admit that made sense, but felt this was too important to leave for another day. On the walk back from the Regent, Avery made the calls from her cell phone. She reached Pearl and Solomon at the Herald and asked them if they could
come to her house at four o’clock for an emergency meeting. Solomon said they had something incredible to pass on. “We’ll be there.”

  Hector was at the theatre but he was in agreement waiting another day could be dangerous. He had something to report. “They’re in the middle of dress rehearsal. Joyce won’t even notice I’m gone.”

  Dennis and Helen were on their way home from seeing Jesse and would definitely be there. “I don’t know how much longer the poor bastard can hang on,” Dennis said.

  Josephine had been talking to the ladies who visited Jesse to find out which of them could’ve delivered the necklace and letter. She was glad they weren’t giving up because she had news too.

  It was noon when Elliot dropped Avery off at her house. He left her at the door with the cryptic message that he was going to visit her neighbour. “I have one or two questions about the note. I’ll see you this afternoon, Mrs Holmes.”

  “Four o’clock on the dot.”

  Her house was quiet and withdrawn. Avery hung up her coat on the mirrored stand. She had not spent much time within these walls lately and there were jobs to be done to get the house ready for winter. Thomas used to run around with a caulking gun, load up the woodshed and get in the hay. Avery wandered to the kitchen and stood at the French doors, gazing at the garden. She was certain there was something she was supposed to do prepare it for winter. The many gardening magazines she’d read had all sorts of tips. She should pull them out.

  Instead, she made a pot of tea and a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch.

  Avery glanced at the clock on the wall. Twelve-thirty—plenty of time to get some writing in before the meeting. The trouble was this was the worst time of day to begin anything. She drummed her fingers on the edge of the table, staring off into space. The murder of Jenny Blake wouldn’t leave her thoughts. What had begun as a hobby—a brain exercise—had become a cause and Avery wasn’t sure she wanted a cause at this stage of her life. The farm had been a calling of sorts, small though it was. Growing their own food and raising livestock was done from the belief that one didn’t have to be a consumer to live well. That was their cause, hers and Thomas’s. Avery didn’t want the burden of a cause now. She was burdened enough with trying to write a book.