Sweet Tea and Secrets

by Joy Avon

  Callie said, “When you were here, Roger sent you flowers at the hotel. Do you think he might have been watching you?”

  “I was afraid of that. I was very careful. I met Dave only once at the lighthouse like I was visiting it as a tourist. We didn’t kiss then or act close; we acted like perfect strangers. I’m sure that anybody watching us never noticed a thing.”

  Callie sighed. “How does the map Jamison had fit into everything? On his desk was a map with the spot marked where the boat sank. How could he have known? Did he sink the boat? Did he kill your sister? Did he then investigate the case to solve it miraculously and take credit for it?”

  “If that was his plan,” Quinn said, “then why didn’t he go through with it?”

  “Maybe he was afraid he would get caught. Maybe over time he believed he had made some kind of mistake that would give him away. His career wasn’t worth the risk of spending his life in prison for murder.”

  Callie thought hard. “It doesn’t gel somehow. If Jamison thought he had killed Monica Walker on that boat, why did he call Dave before he died? He had no idea you’re Monica, right?”

  “Nobody knows that,” Monica said, “except for Dave, and you two now.”

  She held Callie’s gaze. “What are you going to do about it?”

  Callie shrugged. “We can’t do much about it. If we reveal it, there’ll just be a media sensation, and it won’t solve the two murder cases. Besides, I assume you don’t want the world to know you’re living here and have been since the day you vanished.”

  Monica nodded. “I want to continue the life I have now. It’s quiet and peaceful and just what I need.”

  “But your disappearance caused your sister’s death. My mother’s death.” Quinn’s whole body was tense. “I can’t just ignore that. I want to find out who killed her.”

  “I know. And I also want you to find out. That’s why I’m here. I decided to tell you the truth, even though Dave will be disappointed that I broke my promise to him. I want you to know the full story.”

  “So far you haven’t told me much that’s of any use to me. You don’t know anything about her life. You can’t tell me who killed her. That is, if you’re not lying about you and Dave having nothing to do with it.”

  Monica’s jaw pulled tight. “I told you what I know. I can’t give you anything I don’t have. I believed I was doing the right thing.”

  “Doing the right thing would have been getting your sister treatment for her addiction. Not giving her money to pretend to be you.” Quinn crossed his arms over his chest. “You didn’t care for her at all.”

  “I hardly knew her. She came here to blackmail me. She told me she wanted money or else she would go on TV and spread lies about me. About our childhood, our parents, whatever came to mind. She laughed and said that people would believe her. I hated my life already. What would have happened if she had made good on that threat? She was a ruthless, self-centered person. There was nothing in the world that mattered more to her than her need for drugs and the money to pay for them.”

  Quinn jutted his chin up as if to resist Monica’s explanation, but Callie saw in his eyes that he realized it was probably true.

  Monica said, “I know I should have treated her better. And over time I’ve often wondered if I could have helped her. But I know that it’s very hard to help people who are addicted and who don’t want to change. My sister didn’t want to quit. She just wanted me to supply the money for her to keep on going.”

  “And you did.” Quinn’s voice was suffocated. “You gave her enough that she could have killed herself.”

  “But she didn’t kill herself. Someone killed her. And I want that killer found. Not for me. I could have stayed hidden in my cottage, saying nothing.”

  “You came here because of your husband. Not because of your sister!” Quinn shouted. “It’s about you, you, you—never about her. It wasn’t back then and it isn’t now.”

  He stormed out the door.

  Monica ran after him, calling, “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”

  Quinn didn’t reply. He dove into his car and drove off.

  Monica watched him leave, then turned to Callie, who had followed her out. “What will he do? Tell the press I’m here?”

  “I can’t say. He’s very upset. He only just learned that his parents weren’t his real parents when his adoptive mother died. Then he looked for you. Now he’s found you, but the story isn’t what he thought it would be. That’s been very hard on him.”

  “I know.” Monica stood and surveyed Callie. “I lied. When I said the police had found the murder weapon and could tie it to Dave, that’s not true. They haven’t found it yet. Falk called me to tell me that he released Dave. He might be home already, wondering where I am.”

  Callie held her gaze, perplexed by this revelation. “Then why did you come here? Why did you tell us the truth? You didn’t need to.”

  Monica smiled. “I wanted to. I realized that for all these years I’ve tried to tell myself I did the right thing. For survival. I told myself that if I had let down the studio and the crew of my hit series, they had gotten past it and turned the series into an even bigger success without me. I told myself over and over that in the end nobody’s lives had really gotten any worse because of what I did. Until the boat was found with the body on it. Then I knew my sister had died. Not by my hand. Not because of anything I did directly. But still …”

  She swallowed hard. “I involved her in my escape. And she died while I kept on living. I already had the better life of the both of us. Our father died when we were little, and our mother had to make ends meet and wasn’t at home a lot. Muriel, as the eldest, felt responsible to bring in some income, so she was doing newspaper rounds and washing dishes at restaurants—anything she could really.

  “I was the youngest, protected, getting all the extras, like new jeans or a birthday present. Then Muriel ran away from home, and it was just Mom and me. She put everything she had into my future. I got to study, model, act. After my big breakthrough, I had money, fame. I bought my mother a nice house and made sure she never had to work again or worry about money.

  “But I couldn’t do anything for Muriel. I had no idea where she was or what her life was like. She told me when we she came here all those years ago that she had given up her baby because the father had left her, and she couldn’t take care of a child on her own. I felt so sorry for her.” Monica’s voice trembled. “Guilty too. But I didn’t see how I could help her. I involved her in my plan so I could quiet my conscience with the idea of having given her money. But it was no solution. And now I know she died, and I feel even worse. I can’t keep the secret anymore.”

  She hung her head and stared at the floor. “Dave will probably hate me for what I did just now. But I can’t ignore Muriel’s death. I can’t go on living my life like her death didn’t happen. All of those years I didn’t know. But now I do.”

  Callie said, “You should have told Quinn. Then he would have understood you better. He would also have known you that you had some information about his past. The things your sister told you about her baby, why she had to give him up. He wants that information so badly. Now he’s run off and—”

  Monica said, “It’s my fault. I pretended like Dave was in danger and that was I acting because of him. It seemed to be a plausible reason, and I didn’t want to say that I felt guilty about my sister. It seems so cheap after I let her down so badly.”

  Callie squeezed Monica’s hand. “We all have things in our lives that we regret. Things we can’t undo. But I think it’s very brave of you to come forward. I think we should go to Falk and tell him what you told us. He should know. Especially if Quinn is somehow going to make this public.”

  Her stomach tightened at the idea. “I hope he’s not, but this is a very hard time for him, and he’s not himself.”

  Monica nodded. “Let’s go to the police then.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  A
t the station, Falk was surprised to see them but got them coffee and then listened patiently while Monica told her story again. He took notes and asked some questions to get things clearer in his head. “It would be helpful if you could give me a time line for that evening. When you exchanged clothes with your sister. Where she was to go, how she would find the boat, and so on. Maybe we can find a point on that time line where the killer got involved.”

  Just then the door opened and Dave stormed in. He stopped in the middle of the room and looked at Monica. His voice was strangled as he said, “Tell me you didn’t do it.”

  Monica’s lips wobbled as she whispered, “I did it, Dave. I had to. I can’t just let Muriel—”

  “Muriel was after your money. She wanted to destroy you. She never cared for you, just for herself.” Dave’s hands were clenched into fists by his sides. He glared at his wife. “She was cold and ruthless and dead set on ruining everything for you. Your career, your spotless reputation. And if she had understood what we had planned, she would have ruined us too. Our chances of ever being happy together.”

  Monica sat with her head down, tears trickling down her cheeks.

  Callie said, “Sit down, Dave. It’s too late to change it now. Monica has already told us. She also told Quinn. He got angry and stormed off. We’re not sure what he intends to do.”

  Dave stared at her. Then his eyes flashed to Monica. “Come on. We have to leave. We have to get out of town before the press comes after us. They can’t know how you look now. We have to run. We can leave the States. We’ll go see Venice. You wanted that, right? We’ll go today.”

  “Sit down, Dave.” Falk rose from behind his desk and pointed at the empty chair beside Monica. “Now.”

  Dave repeated to his wife, “We have to leave. They can’t find us. They can’t destroy all we’ve worked so hard for.”

  “Monica isn’t leaving town,” Falk said. “We need her for the investigation. Now you sit down, or I’ll make you sit down.”

  Dave sank to the chair. He looked at Monica with wide, disillusioned eyes. “Why did you have to do this?” he whispered.

  Monica tried to put her hand on his arm, but he pulled away from her and sat with his back half-turned to her.

  “It’s convenient that you’re here, Mr. Riggs,” Falk continued, “because I have some questions about the night on which Muriel Walker died. I want to know exactly what happened. What your part in it was.”

  “None at all. I never saw Muriel that night.”

  Dave didn’t seem to want to say more, but when Falk just leaned back in his chair and watched him, letting the strained silence linger, Dave seemed compelled to continue, “She knew where the boat was and how to take it out. She knew what to do: Make sure that in the morning she was seen in another town or two. Lay a false trail. Divert attention. Monica paid her enough money to get it right. But she must have been using again and botched it.”

  “Someone killed her!” Monica cried. “She didn’t botch it.”

  Dave spoke as if he hadn’t heard her, “Monica met Muriel to exchange the clothes. Monica then came to me and dyed her hair, changed her appearance, became Elvira Riggs. I had arranged a fake identity for her, through an agency. They delivered everything: birth certificate, passport, diplomas, a complete life to step into. The correspondence was all handled through PO boxes, and they sent me a key to a locker at a bus station where I could find the envelope with paperwork waiting for me. It was expensive, but pretty much foolproof since they didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know who they were. I had already told people around here about the wonderful woman I had met abroad, about our wedding, and said that she would come over shortly. They were expecting her arrival, so it was never connected to Monica Walker’s disappearance. We believed it had worked. Even though there were no sightings and no boat ever turned up. We never thought anything had happened to Muriel.”

  Falk said, “You knew where the boat was waiting for Muriel.”

  “Of course. I put it there.”

  “So you stole it?”

  “Yes.” Dave glared at Falk. “Are you going to arrest me for that?”

  Falk didn’t flinch. “You took the boat to that assigned spot, and you knew that Muriel Walker was going there. Who else knew?”

  “No one! Is it so hard to understand, man? We made this plan together. Muriel didn’t even know I was involved. She thought Monica had arranged for the boat.”

  “Yes, I see.” Falk leaned back in his chair again and leaned his fingertips against each other. “Muriel thought she was dealing with her sister. She thought that after the clothes exchange nobody would be following her around to see what she did. She went out to the boat, not knowing a man knew where it was docked. She went on board unsuspectingly and then you popped up, Mr. Riggs, and you killed her.”

  Dave scoffed. “What? Why? If someone did follow her and killed her, it was someone mistaking her for Monica. Monica was the intended victim.”

  “Was she? It’s clear you’re very protective of your wife. You wanted to take her out of her destructive showbiz life and give her a new start here in his wholesome little town. You had everything prepared, but then her sister turned up. You decided to make her a part of your plan; after all, it was convenient if she could take the boat out so you didn’t have to do it and if she could also play Monica. She could even create sightings that would make the elopement more credible. But let’s be fair. You knew that her addiction drove her to desperate acts. Lies, manipulation. As soon as her money ran out, she would come back. She would start asking for money again.”

  “She had no one to come back to. Monica was leaving the States, for all Muriel knew. She didn’t know about me. Where could she have gone?”

  “That is rational. But aren’t a lot of things in life very irrational? You were this close to being with the love of your life. To having her all to yourself. You would have successfully severed all ties with her old life, and she would be dependent on you and you alone. That was your idea of happiness. You couldn’t risk that. You had come so close. Muriel was a risk. Maybe you even told yourself that with her drug addiction she would never have a really good life. So killing her wasn’t really unethical. Perhaps you were even doing her a favor?”

  “What are you talking about? I never thought that. I never saw her that night either. I certainly didn’t harm her.”

  “Come on, Mr. Riggs.” Falk leaned forward on his desk. “When you came in here just now, you were fuming. You spoke about Muriel Walker in derogatory terms, saying she had been out to ruin your wife’s life. You didn’t like her. Even after all these years, you can’t hide your frustration about her appearance on the scene. And now we know someone killed her. You just told me you put the boat in place. You were the only one who knew where it was. So if Muriel Walker’s dead body ended up on that boat, who could have killed her but you?”

  Dave was silent. His eyes shot from left to right as he scrambled for an answer to Falk’s accusing questions.

  Monica said, “Someone must have followed Muriel to the boat. She was wearing my clothes. It could have been Roger or a crazy fan, some stalker who followed me to Heart’s Harbor. The dock where we kept the boat was dark and abandoned, an ideal place for a confrontation. The killer might have intended to kill her all along, or maybe there was an argument, a struggle. Then he put her on the boat and sank it to hide her death.”

  “Not very likely. Someone who had been following her for a longer time and confronted her there would have simply thrown her body into the water or hidden it some other way, but not thought up this entire plan with the boat. No. I think I’m holding Mr. Riggs. You admitted you stole the boat. You admitted you were the only one who knew where it was docked.”

  “Not quite.” Monica’s eyes sparkled. “I also knew. I had to tell Muriel, remember? Are you sure, Deputy, that I didn’t kill my sister? She was a danger to me too. Maybe even more so than to Dave.”

  Falk looked at her. “A charming
way to distract me, Miss Walker or Mrs. Riggs or whatever I should call you now. Is your marriage abroad even valid? I doubt it. If you had married under your own name, the press would have gotten wind of it.”

  Monica hung her head. Her hands clutched the purse in her lap. “I’m holding Dave,” Falk continued. “I want to take a closer look at all the circumstances of the old case and of course Jamison’s death as well. You were the last people he called before he died. What was that about? Treasure hunts? I don’t think so.”

  Dave glanced at Monica and sighed. “Okay, so he told me over the phone he had to see me, that he needed my advice on something sensitive.”

  “Why you of all people?”

  “We knew each other through the Historical Society. We got along. He said that he needed someone who could keep a secret. In case he was wrong about what he suspected.”

  “But you didn’t go to him?”

  “No. I was worried it had something to do with Monica’s disappearance and I didn’t want to talk about that. I was already sorry I had gone to Callie. I felt compelled to meddle, to tell her about Monica, about her having wanted to do a new series, and I wanted to steer Callie’s perception of the situation, to have her think in a certain direction. But that was wrong. I should never have come forward. It only drew attention to me, to us. Because I had already made that mistake, I was edgy, unsure. I didn’t feel up to facing Jamison and risking him maybe intuiting something about my story, finding it suspicious.”

  “You admit you felt edgy, cornered perhaps even?” Falk hitched a brow. “You had made a mistake approaching Callie, and now Jamison wanted to talk to you. You were worried about what he might know or, in any case, suspect. You did go to him. And then it got out of hand, and you lashed out at him.”

  “No!” Dave shook his head forcefully. “I never went to the Herald’s offices.”

  “I don’t believe you.” Falk leaned back with determination etched in his features. “Jamison had the map indicating where the boat was sunk. He must have been on to you. You paid him money to keep his mouth shut. Then Jamison wasn’t prepared to shut up anymore. He told you over the phone that he was going to tell the truth. That you killed Monica Walker.