The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  “Maybe.” Nora shrugged. “But a smart man can start a fire with a remote control if he really wants to. Maybe that’s what you did.”

  Flint put his hands to his head and tugged at his hair, looking frantic. “I’m not lying! I have an alibi!”

  “The laptop, Flint. Why did you hide the fact that you have it?”

  “What was I supposed to do?” Flint asked.

  “Tell the truth, that’s what you were supposed to do,” Nora said. “I can’t believe I hid your story from the sheriff. I trusted you, Flint.”

  “I’m sorry,” Flint said. “I really am. But I did tell you the truth. Ninety percent of it, anyway. I did break into Jake’s house the night of the murder. Coincidentally, he wasn’t there. The part I lied about was that I did find the laptop in his house. I came home and Betty was missing so I hid the laptop in the basement and tried to figure out what was happening. You know the rest — you were at the sheriff’s station when I got there. You followed me home and started pressuring me to tell you what had happened. Remember, at the time I had no idea that it was Jake who was murdered. So I lied to you. I thought it wouldn’t matter. I didn’t want you looking at the laptop and seeing…well…seeing things you had no business seeing.” Flint took a deep breath. “Then, when I found out that Jake was the murder victim, I was really glad I’d told absolutely nobody about the laptop — not even Betty. I decided to just stay quiet. I decided it was best to wait until the chaos died down.”

  “Did you realize what you were doing?” Nora asked. “If you’d just handed over the laptop to the police, they would have solved the case by now. I’m sure he’s got information about the murderer in there.”

  “I don’t know,” Flint said. “See, I couldn’t figure out the password myself, and I didn’t know how to hack into it.”

  “So what?”

  “So I couldn’t just hand over sensitive information to the police, could I? Sheriff Ellerton and his deputies are a loose-lipped bunch. I was sure that the entire town would know exactly why Jake Tipper had been blackmailing me. My life would have been ruined. I’d be a laughing stock in this town.”

  Nora frowned. “Blackmailing you? Interesting choice of words. I thought it was Betty that Jake was blackmailing.”

  Flint colored. “Yes, of course. That’s what I meant. Jake was blackmailing Betty, and me by extension.”

  “The truth is the only thing that will save you, Flint,” Nora said. “I’m not giving you any more chances. Spit it out. All of it.”

  Flint hung his head for a second, then looked up. “Fine. Betty wasn’t the only one Jake was blackmailing. He was blackmailing me, too.”

  “Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” Nora asked. “What did he have to blackmail you about?”

  Flint bit his lip. “Well…if you must know, in the antique business, you sometimes have a chance to make some…tax-free money.”

  “Illegal sales?” Nora asked.

  “Something like that,” Flint said. “Let’s just say I have a bank account somewhere far away from here that has a healthy sum in it. My retirement fund. Betty knows nothing about it. But somehow Jake knew. Jake seemed to have made it his business to know everything in this town. He told me I could fork over 50% of what was in the bank account to him, or 100% to the IRS.”

  “That’s why you didn’t want to show the laptop to anyone, not even Betty?” Nora asked. “You wanted to destroy the evidence first?”

  “That’s right,” Flint said. “But I promise you — I promise you — I didn’t kill Jake. I value life. I value all human life and, most importantly, I value my own. I wouldn’t ever kill a man, especially not over money. I mean, the worst the IRS would do would be to fine me. But murder? I’d go to jail. I never ever want to go to jail.”

  “You may not have a choice now,” Nora said. “Get up, Flint. We’re going to the sheriff.”

  “No. Please!” Flint begged.

  “I’m sorry, Flint. I can’t protect you. You lied repeatedly, a man is dead, my friend is in the hospital,” Nora said. “How much more damage do you want to do? You have to fess up.”

  “I’ll pay you!” Flint said desperately. “I’ll pay you whatever amount you like. I’ll give you half my bank account! Just think of all the things that could buy. New houses for Hazel and Grace. A Mercedes for yourself. A Rolex for Harvey. Just think!”

  “I’m not interested,” Nora said. “Get out of my way, Flint. I’m going to the sheriff even if you won’t come along.”

  Flint slumped down again and began to sob in earnest this time. “Please…please, Nora.”

  Stepping over him, Nora pressed the button calling the elevator. She looked behind her and Flint was staring off into the distance in a trance.

  “I should have listened to Garth,” Flint said. “He told me Jake was a dangerous man to be involved with. Jake blackmailed him, too, you know. But I was overconfident. I thought I could handle it. He warned me not to break into Jake’s house but…I didn’t listen. I’m such an idiot.”

  “I already know Jake tried to blackmail Garth,” Nora said. “About his family fortune. Garth handled it correctly, though. He didn’t pay attention to the blackmailer and just kept living his life.”

  “I should have done the same.” Flint sighed. “Go, Nora. I guess I’ll see you soon enough. Maybe from behind bars next time.”

  “Goodbye, Flint,” Nora said. Then, feeling the slightest twinge of pity for him, she added, “I’ll give you an hour — no more — to surrender to the sheriff and confess everything. That way, they may be lighter when sentencing you. But, if you don’t surrender in an hour I’m going myself. I’ve given you all the chances I could. The rest is up to you.”

  *****

  Chapter 19

  Files and Fury

  As she walked down the street to her own car, Nora heard footsteps behind her. A familiar voice cried out, “Mrs. Nathaniel!”

  “Tim?” Nora blinked and smiled as the young man approached her. He was wrapped up in a heavy, black coat with a red beanie on his head. His cheeks were bright red and his eyes sparkling. A pretty young girl was walking with him, their arms linked.

  “Hi Mrs. Nathaniel. Er…this is Mel—Melanie. My…friend.”

  “Ah.” Nora smiled at the girl. “Hello.”

  “Hi.” The girl seemed a little shy, refusing to make eye contact.

  “Mrs. Nathaniel, Kurt and I spoke to the sheriff,” Tim said. “I just wanted to tell you, too. The man with the gas can — it turned out to be a red herring.”

  “Really?” Nora blinked.

  “Yeah, it was Mr. Butler we saw that night. You know him? Mr. Butler lives down the road. He said he was planning to go fishing the next day. Sheriff Ellerton confirmed his story completely. The can of gas was for his boat. He had absolutely nothing to do with the murder.” Tim shrugged his shoulders.

  “Well, there goes nothing, eh?” Nora sighed. “I really did think it was a clue. So nothing you saw panned out?”

  Tim shook his head. “Just the one woman coming home from work and the one man walking his dog — Kurt said he knows the dog, too — neither seems to be anything special.”

  “Wait a minute.” Nora frowned.

  “I told you, you and Kurt were making a big fuss about nothing,” Mel teased Tim. “The way you were acting, I thought you’d be in witness protection by Monday. Drama queens, both of you.”

  “Hey, we did call the firemen! That fire could have gotten out of control and killed people. We’re heroes! Is it our fault the villain wasn’t holding up a sign?”

  “Sure, heroes.” Mel flicked her tongue out at him.

  “Tim, you’re a genius,” Nora said.

  “Huh?” Tim blinked.

  “The woman,” Nora said. “You said she was coming home from work. Why would you assume that? She could have been coming home from a party or from anywhere, really.”

  “Oh, no. She had a laptop case in her hand,” Tim said. “I remember that pret
ty clearly.”

  “A laptop case.” Nora grinned. “I bet she did. I bet the laptop case was empty, too.”

  “Wh—why?” Tim looked confused.

  “Because I have the laptop she wanted,” Nora said. “Tim, I’m betting that woman was the one who broke into Jake’s house and set fire to it. She grabbed the laptop case, thinking it had Jake’s laptop still in it. Then she walked away.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Who works till 10:30 here in Milburn?” Nora grinned. “The town is locked up tight by 9pm. Suspicious, isn’t it, that she was walking around in the cold so late at night, with a laptop case, of all things?”

  “Wow...” Tim breathed. “Then I did see something.” Mel was suddenly looking at him with new respect, and his chest swelled with pride.

  “Do you remember much about what she looked like?” Nora asked. “Her features? Anything?”

  “I only saw her from far away,” Tim said. “She had long, red hair. That’s all I remember. She was pretty well built, I’d say. But, again, I wouldn’t be able to pick her out of a lineup.”

  “Long, red hair…that’s good enough. That’s a pretty huge clue, actually,” Nora said.

  “If it’s Jake’s laptop you have, Mel can help you with it, by the way,” Tim said.

  “She can?”

  “Sure. Mel’s a computer genius,” Tim said. “Plus, she used to help Jake out whenever his laptop froze up or something. Jake was a work friend of her dad’s.”

  “I felt pretty bad when he died,” Mel said, her face softening. “I mean…he was really, really old but, still…murder’s a horrible way to go.”

  “Really, really old, eh? He was my age,” Nora said.

  Mel shifted from one leg to another and Nora grinned. To a teenager, even thirty seemed ancient. So she was probably like a living dinosaur. Ah, youth.

  “Would the two of you like some hot chocolate?” Nora asked. “On the house at the diner?”

  “For real?” A bright smile spread across Tim’s face.

  “In exchange for help with cracking open the laptop,” Nora said. “And…keeping quiet about it.”

  “Aren’t you going to take it down to the sheriff?” Mel looked uncertain.

  “I absolutely will,” Nora said. “Just as long as I’m sure that it is, in fact, Jake’s laptop. After all, I don’t want to lead the sheriff on any more wild goose chases. I’ll take it down to the sheriff as soon as I’ve—”

  “As soon as you’ve satisfied your curiosity.” Mel didn’t look impressed.

  “Aw, don’t be like that, Mel. Don’t you know who Mrs. Nathaniel is? When a murder happened at my aunt’s wedding, Nora was the one who solved it.”

  “That was you?” Mel looked impressed. “I’ve heard that story tons of times!”

  “She was the one who figured out who murdered the librarian, too. That was years ago, though.”

  “No, I remember.” Mel looked eager now. “Mrs. Nathaniel, will you mention us if the papers come around? Something like this would be pretty great on my college applications.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Nora said. “I mean, we don’t know anything so far.”

  “But we will!” Mel exclaimed.

  Fifteen minutes later, they were at the diner, seated in a booth and sipping hot chocolates. Mel had a whipped cream mustache on her upper lip and Tim was fishing at the bottom of his mug for marshmallows. The comfortable, red leather seat squeaked a little as Tim fidgeted about. Nora, meanwhile, had just ordered some strong, black coffee — she wanted to be as alert as possible.

  “There you go.” Mel pushed the laptop towards Nora. “Jake never bothered to change his password. Admin123. I told him a hundred times that he should.”

  “Did he have anything interesting in there?” Tim asked, leaning over.

  Nora cleared her throat. “I’m not sure. Mostly just work files, it seems.”

  The laptop was full of files. The entire screen had little icons with random names like “xum” on it. If Jake had a system, only he understood it.

  “Sort the files by most recently opened,” Mel said. “That might help.”

  “You can do that?” Nora asked, wide-eyed.

  With a roll of her eyes, Mel dragged the laptop across the table, pressed a few buttons and handed it back to Nora. “There you go.”

  Nora gulped. Only five files had been opened the week of Jake’s murder. The first two seemed fairly routine — one related to Jake’s bank documents and the other to his work assignments. The third file was mysteriously named “Sunshine”. Nora clicked it open and hastily shut it again. She didn’t see anything more than the thumbnails but she could guess who was in the photos. Poor Betty. So “Sunshine” was Jake’s nickname for her, apparently.

  The next file was called “Foxface”. Nora could guess exactly who that referred to. She clicked open the file and gave a low whistle. There were numerous pdfs, excel sheets and email screenshots. She went through a few of them, not really understanding the numbers but knowing that Flint would have understood them just fine. Put together, the file clearly showed Flint’s wrongdoings. He had over a million dollars socked away in a bank account overseas, and much of the earnings were through the illegal sales of artifacts.

  There was another file labeled “Chameleon”. Nora frowned. Now who could that be? She opened the file and her eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline. Mel elbowed Tim and pointed at Nora.

  “Looks like you found something,” Mel said. “Is it good?”

  “I’m…not sure,” Nora said. She was looking at a series of love letters, all of which began “To My Egyptian Goddess” and ended with “From Your Beloved Chameleon”.

  “Love letters?” Mel looked puzzled.

  “Don’t read them,” Nora said. “They’re all rather…er…private.”

  “Well, they may hold a clue as to who this ‘Chameleon’ is!”

  Nora shook her head. “Nope. It’s all just about how much he adores her.”

  “Ugh, what’s with all the secrecy? Why couldn’t he just have written, ‘To Mary James, who lives on 123 Rainbow Road, from your faithful love, John Doe, from 145 Rainbow Road’?” Tim groaned. “Now we’re more clueless than ever before.”

  “Egyptian Goddess.” Nora tapped her chin. “That’s an interesting nickname, isn’t it? Quite specific.”

  “Any idea what it means?”

  Nora shook her head. “I saw a statue recently. I just can’t recall where...”

  “Your memory’s going, is it?” Mel was sympathetic. “My grandma’s like that, too. Can’t remember where she put her car keys but can tell you with perfect accuracy what happened on a random Monday in 1950.”

  “It’s not that.” Nora squeezed her eyes shut and tried to force herself to conjure up the image that was lurking in the shadows of her mind. She’d seen an Egyptian goddess somewhere. But where?

  “You should have some more coffee,” Tim suggested. “Coffee’s good for the brain.”

  “No, it’s only good to wake you up,” Mel said. “It doesn’t do anything for your memory.”

  “Here are the sandwiches you ordered. Steak and onion, turkey and Swiss.” Tina handed the teens two massive subs. She glanced at Nora, turned around to see if anyone was watching, then slid into the booth, bumping Nora aside with her hip. Nora slid in further until she was touching the picture window, then rested her head on it.

  “I give up,” Nora said. “My memory’s eluding me.”

  “What’s all this?” Tina whistled as she checked out the laptop.

  “This, right here, is the key to solving the mystery. I’m about to hand it over to Sheriff Ellerton,” Nora said.

  “We found Jake’s missing laptop!” Mel explained. Tim grunted as he chowed down on the sandwich. He leaned back after a particularly big bite and inhaled deeply. “Amazing,” he said, closing his eyes. “Everyone should experience a sandwich this delicious at least once in their lives. The
bread is crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. The cheese is hot and stretchy. The onions, perfectly caramelized. I could sing its praises all day long.”

  “You angling for Jake’s job as restaurant reviewer?” Tina asked. “Because, with a review like that, I’d sure be glad to see you get it.”

  Tim laughed self-consciously. “I’m a little bit of a writer, yes. But my true passion is acting. Mel knows.”

  “He’s a drama queen.” Mel rolled her eyes again, smiling at Tim.

  “Red hair,” Nora muttered. “Red hair.”

  “Nora?” Tina waved a hand in front of Nora’s face. “Are you alright?”

  “I can’t figure it out.” Nora sighed. “I just can’t figure any of it out.”

  “You look exhausted,” Tina said. “Honestly, go home and take a nap. Maybe sleep will help clear your brain.”

  “Maybe that’s just what I’ll do,” Nora said. “But, first, I need to go give the sheriff this laptop.”

  “Aw, can’t I have five more minutes with it?” Mel asked.

  “No. We’ve already invaded poor Jake’s privacy enough.”

  “Well, he didn’t mind invading other people’s privacy,” Mel said. “Looks like he was blackmailing people. I never would have guessed. He seemed like such a nice guy.”

  “Take it from an older and wiser woman,” Tina said, “the nicest-seeming guys can be the biggest creeps sometimes. Remember that as you go through life.”

  “Well, it’s a relief I’m anything but nice, huh?” Tim elbowed Mel and grinned.

  The bell above the door tinkled and Nora turned around to see Deputy Jamie walk in. He sat down at the counter and Tina got up. “Looks like I have a customer, folks.”

  “Hi, Nora,” Deputy Jamie said. “What’s up?”

  “Well, I was planning to hand this over to the sheriff, but you’ve made my task easier.” Nora smiled. She handed the laptop to the deputy and his jaw dropped.

  “Is that—” He stared.

  “Jake Tipper’s laptop,” Nora said. “I found it in Flint’s basement. Has Flint come in and confessed yet? I promised him an hour.”