Carol raised her eyebrows, clearly surprised at the question. After several seconds, she nearly stuttered, “Aren’t you curious?” Before Edna could answer, her passenger rushed on. “I’m sorry, Edna. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” Carol studied Edna’s face with unfocused eyes that indicated she was thinking. After a brief pause, she said, “Maybe it would help if I explain how I proceed with a story I’m investigating.” Before Edna could agree or disagree, Carol went on, “I ask myself questions, lots of questions. Questions you’ve probably been asking yourself.”
Edna was interested to learn if Carol’s concerns actually meshed with her own, so she remained silent and waited.
Carol shifted in her seat to face Edna more directly. “Okay, for starters, you found the body of someone who was thought to be dead. Because of that one incident, we now must consider the man who is sitting in prison, accused of killing him. What happens to him? Also, I’m wondering whose corpse was pulled out of the pond and identified as Billy Rob Kailey ten years ago. Who was he and how did he die?” She leaned toward Edna as if willing her to understand. “And those are just a few speculations off the top of my head. Wouldn’t you want to find answers to any of those questions?”
“Well, of course, I’m curious.” Edna was beginning to understand Carol’s logic as well as her enthusiasm. Edna’s world had been turned upside down by the relatively simple act of finding a dead man, but thinking about all the other lives that had been affected was nearly overwhelming. However, still concerned about those closest to the recently deceased, she protested. “His children were so young at the time …” She sighed. “I know I’m waffling and I apologize. On the one hand, I want to know that they’re okay; but on the other, I’m just not comfortable bothering them. Those kids already have enough on their plates.” She hesitated before adding, “And what about Charlie. He won’t be happy if you question the family after he asked you not to.”
“Yesterday, he all but said I could look into the old case because it was closed. I’m not breaking any law by snooping around while he decides whether or not to reopen it. Look,” Carol said, obviously taking a different tact in an attempt to appease Edna. “I need to make a living. I’ve already contacted editors who’ve bought my work in the past. They’re interested, so I have to get the jump on this story before I’m shut out. There are so many strings to follow. I need to talk to as many people as I can while I still have access. The Kaileys are close by, so I’m starting with them.”
Edna turned to look out the windshield as she considered Billy Rob’s children. Without warning, the image of someone else popped into her head. Pieter Resnik. How could he have been mistaken when he testified in court to the identity of the dead man? As quickly as the thought appeared, it flew from her mind when Carol spoke.
“How come you were the one who found the body?”
Edna stared at her passenger. “What do you mean?”
“Why wasn’t Doctor Jennings there first? Seems to me, he should have been in the office before you got there.” Carol frowned, clearly puzzled.
Edna realized Gordon hadn’t mentioned why he’d been late that evening. “I suppose he got detained at the dinner where he was speaking. Those types of engagements are apt to run late.”
“Is that what he told you?” Carol sounded skeptical.
“What are you driving at?” Edna, not wanting to admit he hadn’t explained, overrode Carol’s question with one of her own.
“Maybe Doctor Jennings left Billy Rob’s body in the chair so you would be the one to find it and notify the police.”
“Surely not.” Edna felt her cheeks burn at the thought. “We haven’t known Gordon long, but Albert and I count him among our closest friends. I can’t imagine him doing something like that to me.”
Carol gently laid a hand on Edna’s arm. “I don’t think he would, either. I just want you to understand that I consider all angles, all possibilities, when I’m researching a story, and I can’t let my personal feelings interfere.” She stopped for a second or two before adding, “That’s why I have to wonder about Doctor Jennings’ late arrival on the scene.” She withdrew her hand and her eyes became slightly unfocused again.
“What are you suggesting?” Edna asked, not certain she wanted to hear any more.
Carol’s gaze steadied on Edna’s face. “How did Billy Rob come to be in the dentist’s chair? What brought him to the office? Did he have an appointment? And, what about the timing? Were you meant to find the body?”
“Gordon wouldn’t ...” Edna began.
“Are you sure?” Carol cut in before Edna could finish.
Am I? she wondered, but before she could think how to reply, Carol threw out a challenge.
“Why don’t we go ask him?”
Chapter 14
As Edna leaned forward and reached for the key to start the car, Carol looked at her watch. “It’s only a little past eight-thirty and River Street isn’t far out of the way to Doctor Jennings’ house. Would you mind driving by the Kaileys’ so we can see if anyone’s home? Rob or Karen might not have left for school yet.”
Edna hesitated. She did want to see Billy Rob’s children and offer her condolences. She also wanted to make certain they didn’t need anything, since their mother had deserted them, but perhaps the timing might be better in a few days. She sat back and turned to Carol. “Can this interview wait? Is it really necessary to talk to them so soon after they’ve received such devastating news?”
Carol frowned and appeared to be uncertain how to answer. Finally, she heaved a sigh and nodded. “Yes, it is.” Hunching toward Edna with a pleading look, she put a hand on Edna’s forearm. “It’s the biggest story that’s come my way since I helped to catch those arsonists last year.” She paused as if making up her mind what to say next. “And it’s my chance to go home.”
“What do you mean?” As Gran’s image came to mind, Edna was surprised by the last remark. “Isn’t your home here with your grandmother?”
Carol shook her head. “Chicago’s my home and I miss it. It’s where I grew up.” Releasing her hold on Edna’s arm, Carol sat up straight, excitement flashing in her brown eyes. “I’ve felt guilty even thinking about leaving Gran alone in the house she bought for me, bought so I could be safe.” She relaxed a little and slouched against the passenger door. “Now that Gran has Codfish, I think she’d be relieved if I left, but of course she wouldn’t say so.” Carol chuckled. “I’m pretty sure the two old lovebirds want to get married, but Gran won’t kick me out of the house, at least not until I’m back on my financial feet.” She leaned forward again as if to make certain her point was getting through to Edna. “This is my chance. I know it. It’s incredible how many stories are in that one incident, just waiting to be written--the wrong man identified, the forensics involved in dental work, the family who thought the husband and father was dead for ten years.” She turned her head away, but slid her eyes toward Edna as she mentioned this last item.
“Okay. Enough.” Patting her young friend’s shoulder, Edna bobbed her head. “I get the picture, but I wish Fran had stayed in town so you didn’t have to involve the Kailey children.”
“Hardly ‘children’,” Carol said, but hurried to add, “I promise to treat them with kid gloves,” She turned to look at Edna and the sides of her mouth twitched. Obviously trying to ease the tension in the car, she said, “Pun intended.”
Edna laughed, shook her head in resignation and reached again for the key to start the car. Both women fell silent during the short ride to River Street until Carol said, “There it is,” as she pointed to a small white house with black shutters. Dutifully, Edna pulled to the side and parked on the verge. The deluge had practically stopped, so she turned off the windshield wipers and examined the building.
Standing no more than ten feet from the macadam, the house had no front yard. In an area of mixed residential and commercial real estate, where buildings and lots weren’t always well-maintained, the Kaileys’ pr
operty stood out. Freshly painted, the tiny house sported a second story that Edna guessed would be divided into two dormer rooms, one for each of the children.
Perhaps Fran shared a room with her daughter, Edna mused. A single, paned window on either side of the east-facing front door wouldn’t allow much light inside, she silently continued to speculate as she got out of the car. Having walked through a number of homes in the area when she and Albert were looking for a retirement place, she could picture the downstairs of this diminutive house holding two large rooms split by a staircase leading to the upstairs. The one bathroom would be downstairs off the kitchen. Space for a small dining table at the end of the living room would be merely an extension of the kitchen tucked beneath the stairs.
The unease Edna felt at intruding into the Kaileys’ lives disappeared when the house appeared to be empty. “Shall we head over to Gordon’s?” she said, turning back toward the car after waiting only briefly for a response to Carol’s knock.
Ignoring her, Carol leaned to peer into the window to the left of the door before sidling over to look into the one on the right. Shielding her eyes and nearly touching glass with her nose, she finally, grudgingly, agreed. “Might’s well.” She sounded as disappointed as Edna was relieved.
A fifteen-minute drive away, Gordon’s place was bigger than the Kaileys’, and seemed spacious for a widower. The rain had stopped but water dripped from overhead branches along the road. The tree-lined street looked middle class with two-story houses on third-of-an-acre lots in a 1950’s neighborhood. Unlike at the Kaileys’ home, Edna was surprised when nobody answered the Jennings’ door. She knew Gordon’s office was still sealed as a crime scene. She’d seen the yellow tape across the door when she’d visited Vera less than an hour ago. Before nine in the morning, Edna expected the man to be home.
“I wonder where he’d be this early.” she muttered mostly to herself.
“Maybe he’s not up yet,” Carol suggested, pressing the doorbell again.
They could hear musical chimes echo through the house, but no sound of footsteps. A gray cat with dark tabby markings appeared on the sill of the window next to the door. Silvan, Edna mentally recalled the cat’s name. During her first dental visit, Gordon had talked about the cat who had emerged from the woods near his house seven years ago. The feline had adopted Gordon a month after his wife’s death when Gordon had been in a particularly low emotional state.
“Pretty kitty,” Carol remarked, just as a dark blue sedan pulled up to the garage beside the house.
As soon as she stepped out of the car, Edna recognized Detective Peggy King. She had interviewed Edna nearly two years before about the death of her handyman. Edna felt her stomach churn. A plain-clothes officer could not bode well for Gordon. Was Detective King here to question him or possibly to arrest him?
“Edna?” Peggy’s brow furrowed as her amber eyes narrowed and shifted from Edna’s face to Carol’s and back. “What are you doing here?” The detective was smartly dressed in a pearl gray pants suit and beige blouse beneath a London Fog trench coat. Her blonde hair was cut in the boyish style Edna remembered.
“Looking for Gordon,” she said, knowing she stated the obvious. She half turned to take Carol by the wrist and bring her forward. “I don’t know if you’ve met my neighbor and friend, Carol James.”
Peggy’s expression cleared as she nodded acknowledgement. “Nice to meet you,” she said.
“You, too.” Carol returned the greeting pleasantly enough, but seemed to wait for the officer to explain herself.
Ignoring the intent stare, Peggy spoke to Edna. “What do you want with Doctor Jennings?”
“I came to ask him about the other night,” Edna said at the same time thinking, something’s definitely wrong. “I’ve been terribly unsettled since finding the body in his office, and I thought if I could talk to him about it I might feel better.” She hesitated before prompting Peggy as she would have done with Charlie. “You’re here to speak to him, too?”
Detective King shook her head as she reached into a pocket and removed a key. “Doctor Jennings is at the station, helping with our investigation. We’re here to collect a few things from the house.”
“With his permission.” Carol’s words, ushered not as a question but more as a lawyer might state them, brought Edna’s startled gaze to her young neighbor’s deadpan face.
“Of course.” Peggy stared as steadily back at Carol.
Trying to ignore the tension that was building between the policewoman and the investigative reporter, Edna’s heartbeat quickened as she reached out to put a hand on the detective’s wrist. “Have you arrested him?”
Peggy’s wary stare moved from Carol to Edna. “We’re wondering why Doctor Jennings denied knowing the man in his chair. He didn’t say anything to you about the identity, did he?”
Edna didn’t have to think back to the night in question. “Why, no. I had no time at all to talk with Gordon. You can ask Charlie.” A black-and-white pulled up behind Peggy’s car. When Edna recognized the uniformed patrolman who stepped out as the man who’d accompanied Rita Nichols Monday night, she motioned with her chin, adding, “Or that officer. He was there.”
As Swen Reynolds strode up and nodded a silent greeting toward the women, Peggy gently pulled away from Edna’s grasp. “We have to go to work now, ladies, so if you’ll excuse us …” She waited, leaving the obvious dismissal unfinished.
Reluctantly, Edna hooked her arm through Carol’s. She really wanted to accompany the police into Gordon’s house and ask more questions. She was certain Charlie would have let her in, if he’d been there. Instead, she said, “Come on, Carol. Let’s go.”
Once they were in the car and buckling seat belts, Carol finally spoke. “That squashes our plan to find out why Doctor Jennings was late meeting you Monday night.” She twisted sideways to study Edna. “What now?”
“Call Mary,” Edna said after only the briefest hesitation. “Ask her if she knows what’s going on at the station with Gordon.”
Carol pulled her cell phone from the side pocket of her backpack and did as she was bid. After speaking briefly with Mary, she shook her head at Edna. “Says she doesn’t know, but she’ll find out.”
“Before she hangs up, ask her for Pieter Resnik’s address. You can ask him about the trial ten years ago, and I want to hear what he has to say about identifying the wrong man.”
After another short conversation with Mary, Carol handed the phone to Edna. “Do you know where Potter Pond is?”
Nodding, Edna put the cell to her ear. She gave a low whistle on hearing the address. “Nice neighborhood. Some pretty ritzy houses in Matunuck.”
Mary’s chuckle came through the phone before she said, “Pieter married money.”
Ending the call and returning the mobile to Carol, Edna started the car and pulled away from Gordon Jennings house. As she drove south toward the beaches and their new destination, she questioned Carol without taking her eyes from the road. “You were pretty quiet back there. What’s on your mind?”
“I was rethinking our earlier discussion.” Carol then spoke as if she were clarifying thoughts for her own benefit as well as for Edna’s. “We’re looking at two cases here. One involves the man identified by this Pieter Resnik ten years ago and the other concerns your recent corpse.”
“Not mine,” Edna insisted.
Carol ignored her and continued. “When you were talking to that detective a minute ago, I realized I need to stay focused on the old trial for now and leave you to find out what happened this past week. Otherwise, I’m spreading myself too thin.” She paused before adding, “And I admit I’m getting confused.”
“So you’re saying I’m on my own with Gordon?” Edna was puzzled at the new stance her young neighbor was taking. “I don’t have near your experience in delving into these situations.”
“Oh, we can compare notes as we go along,” Carol said quickly and earnestly. “After all, the two cases are connected
, but I’m just saying that after we see Doctor Resnik, we should split up and you concentrate on Doctor Jennings. Besides,” she said with a wry twist of her mouth, “I need to look into the original Kailey death before Charlie stops me.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Edna said, although she really didn’t understand Carol’s about-face. “Speaking of my favorite detective, when we finish at Pieter’s, I’ll phone him and see if he’ll meet us for lunch. He may not talk about the Kailey children, but he might tell us what he knows about Gordon’s actions Monday night. Once question I can’t get out of my head, since you mentioned it, is why Gordon was so late getting to the office. I simply cannot believe I was meant to find that body.”
Carol didn’t respond, but seemed to drift off into her own thoughts for the remainder of the drive to Matunuck.
In an area with few houses, they had no trouble locating the one belonging to Pieter Resnik. His driveway curved around to the front door, allowing them to stop beneath a portico which protruded a good dozen feet out from above the front door. Nobody responded to the bell, but as they stood in the quiet of the morning, the women heard music coming from somewhere in the house.
“Chopin,” Edna said, recognizing the piano piece.
“A little loud, don’t you think?” Carol said. “I bet he can’t hear the doorbell over all that noise.” She raised a fist to bang on the door. At the first touch, the heavy oak door swung open and the sound within became almost unbearably loud.
Astonished, the two women looked at each other agape. As Edna remembered to close her mouth, she wondered if she looked as bewildered as Carol.
“Something’s not right.” Carol shouted over the din. Her startled eyes slid toward the half-open door and back to Edna. “We should check.”
Murder by Decay Page 11
