“Damned answering machines!” Mike said more to himself than to Julie and Rich, who stood watching as he called Frank Nilsson. “Either he’s not home or he’s not answering,” Mike said, this time in their direction. “Can you find Luke’s home number for me?”
Julie pulled the thin Ryland directory from the drawer and read the number out as Mike dialed it.
“Mrs. Dyer,” he said with a calmness that amazed Julie, “this is Chief Barlow. I’d like to talk to your husband if I may.” He listened silently to her reply. “What time was that?” he asked. And then: “Did he say where they were meeting? Okay, thanks, Mrs. Dyer, I can check there. If he does get home before I catch up with him, would you just ask him to call me, please? Thanks. You too.”
Julie didn’t need to ask for an explanation. “Frank called Luke around three o’clock,” Mike said, “just after he came in from taking those pictures at Birch Brook. Said something important had come up and they needed to talk. Mrs. Dyer says Luke left to meet Frank at four. At Birch Brook.” He smiled. “They’ll be surprised to find Officer Stearns when they get there.” He looked at his watch. “Almost four. I better get going.” He picked up his notebook and was reaching for the radio sitting next to it on the table when it crackled to life and a voice asked, “Chief Barlow? Stearns here.”
“Go ahead,” Mike answered.
“Sorry, Chief, but I had an urgent call. Two-car accident on the East Flat Road—sounds serious. I’m on my way, but I wanted you to know I had to leave the Birch Brook site. Maybe you can get someone else out there. It’s been real quiet.”
Barlow frowned but told Stearns to continue to the accident scene. “I’ll head to Birch Brook now,” he said. “Anyone else around there?”
“No. Like I said, it’s real quiet. You want me to come back after I do the accident?”
“I’ll take over, Stearns. Got to go,” he said in Julie’s direction after he ended the call. “I’ll get in touch later.”
Before Julie and Rich could say anything, the policeman was out the door, running across the garden toward his cruiser. Rich put his arm around her. “Nothing you can do now,” he said.
“I guess not.”
“Except, of course,” he quickly added, “to tell me what the hell’s going on. Why did you say Frank has to kill Luke?”
“You said it, Rich: to keep things from flying apart. Every time Frank thought he had something under control, it came loose. It must have seemed like that Whack-a-Mole game to him: you hit one, and up comes another. If Mary Ellen backed out of the deal, Frank would be in big financial trouble. So he got control of that one by killing her. Then up popped Luke with questions about ownership, so he got that back under control by getting rid of the evidence. But then when Mike interviewed him this morning about where he was last Wednesday night, he realized something else had gotten loose—he was definitely under suspicion for the break-in.”
“I follow all that—but not why he has to kill Luke.”
“Because Luke could tell Mike what he told us—that he told Frank about the land problems. And that proved Frank’s motive for getting rid of the letter and the diary. So killing Luke brings everything back under control.”
“Not everything,” Rich said. “What about the shovel?”
“That, too. If Luke’s dead, and even if there are no prints on the shovel, the police will assume he killed Mary Ellen and hid the shovel in his backhoe.”
“If Luke’s dead, doesn’t Mike have to find his killer?”
“Not if he committed suicide.”
“But you said Frank wants to kill him.”
“He does. For all the reasons I said. But he has to make it look like suicide. At least that’s what I think he’s going to try. I just hope Mike gets there in time!”
The next hour felt to Julie like the longest day she had ever spent. Rich tried to read papers, but Julie’s pacing distracted him. He suggested they take a walk, but Julie wanted to stay in the house in case Mike called. He suggested they take the portable phone out into the garden and he’d do some work on it. She agreed.
Julie circled around and around Rich, who was on his knees, pulling weeds.
“I wish we could drive out to Birch Brook, but Mike would kill us.”
“Wrong word,” Rich said.
“I can’t stand this waiting. I just hope Mike gets there in time.”
“He’ll call as soon as he can, Julie. We just have to be patient.”
The phone rang, and Julie answered it on the first ring. “Not interested!” she shouted and hit the OFF button. “Damned telemarketers!” she said. “I hope Mike wasn’t trying to call right then.”
“You weren’t on the line for more than two seconds.”
“Maybe three,” she said. “It’s after five, Rich,” Julie replied. “This is taking too long! I just wish …”
And as if in response to her wish, the phone rang. Rich watched as she smiled and the smile swelled to fill her face. “I’m so glad, Luke,” she said. “I was expecting Mike, but it’s even better to hear your voice. No, I understand—it was good of Mike to have you call. Yes, I’m sure he’ll be busy. Well, thanks, but really, I don’t deserve any credit. Okay.”
Julie punched the OFF button and threw her arms around Rich. “Mike made it in time! Luke’s okay, and Mike arrested Frank!”
Holding her tight, Rich felt Julie shaking. “Hey, it’s okay then.” But she began to sob. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he repeated, and steered her toward the house. “Let’s go inside.”
Rich stood over Julie as she sat at the table. “Want to talk?” he asked gently.
“Not much to say,” she replied between sobs. “Can you get me a tissue?”
Rich took the paper towels from the counter and pulled one to hand to her. “Big towels for a big cry,” he said. She laughed and used the towel to wipe her eyes.
“Sorry, but it’s just such a relief. That it’s over. And it was so nice of Luke to say that—he thanked me for saving his life. Did I say that?”
“No, you haven’t said anything.”
“Luke said Mike asked him to call since he knew we’d be waiting, and Mike had to take Frank in and didn’t have time. I can’t wait to get the details, but the main thing is that Mike got there in time to keep Frank from killing Luke.”
“Then you really did save his life. By solving the puzzle. Just in time.”
“Took me long enough, didn’t it?” she said, smiling. “I was all over the place on this, Rich, but I guess it finally worked out.”
“No, you worked it out, Julie. You should feel very good about that. But just don’t make it a habit—solving murders.”
“I just hope people don’t make a habit of committing murders.”
“That’s hard to disagree with. How about some coffee?”
“Maybe something stronger.”
Rich opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of white wine. “I was saving this for dinner, but, hey, why not?”
Julie said she wasn’t really hungry because of everything that had happened, but Rich said he was always hungry, and insisted on fixing them an asparagus and leek frittata he had seen a recipe for in the newspaper. When she smelled it and then saw it, Julie said she was glad he had insisted, and found she was much hungrier than she had realized.
“So now that it’s all over,” Rich said between bites, “what about those letters from the doctor?”
“The Tabor letters. You mean the two that mention Swanson in the Depression?”
“Right.”
“They don’t add much, do they?”
“Probably not to the case against Nilsson, but they do add to what we know about Ryland.”
“My ‘Down and Out in Ryland, Maine,’ you mean?”
“Exactly. You’re going to keep on with it, aren’t you? Here you’ve got those great letters with lots of local detail and all. It’s a treasure trove.”
“I know, I know. But finding time to really do historical research—well, it isn’t easy with my job. Maybe you should look at them. Hey, that’s an idea. We could collaborate. You’re the real historian, and I could sort of help out with stuff about Ryland.”
“I’m a colonialist; what do I know about the Depression? No, it’s your project. And right now, I think it’s time to call it a night, after I get the kitchen cleaned up.”
While he cleared in the kitchen, Julie fell asleep in the chair, and so when Mike called at 10:30, she practically jumped up at the sound of the phone. He apologized for calling so late and said he just wanted to be sure that Julie had heard from Luke. Julie told him Luke had thanked her for saving his life. “But you were the one,” she added. “You got there in time.”
“Thanks to you,” Mike said. “I’ll fill you in later; we’ll talk tomorrow.”
With that welcome prospect, Julie announced she was going to bed, and Rich was happy to join her at once. She slept better that night than she had in weeks.