Camilla paced Heather’s living room. “I don’t want my killer to inherit any of my estate!”
“I’m not convinced Flora is your killer,” Danielle said. “I bet Flora forged the will after Camilla’s murder, to get something she felt entitled to. It sort of reminds me of crab tamales.”
Camilla stopped pacing and stared at Danielle. “Crab tamales?”
Heather chuckled. “Yeah, one of Brian’s old girlfriends offed her cheating husband with crab tamales. He was allergic.”
“She was not my girlfriend,” Brian grumbled.
Heather shrugged, and Danielle continued with her explanation. “At first, the wife wasn’t blamed for his death. Everyone thought the person who initially gave her husband the tamales was the killer because he had a motive to kill him. But I always thought crab tamales were an unreliable murder weapon. After all, it wasn’t the crab that killed him, it was falling into the ocean after he ate them. No one could predict he would fall into the ocean.”
Camilla stared dumbly at Danielle. Finally, she said, “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure what Steve Klein’s case has to do with Camilla’s,” Brian muttered under his breath.
Heather chuckled. “Actually, I sorta understand what she’s saying.”
“Even if Flora didn’t murder me, I don’t want her to inherit one cent of my money!”
“One way to prove the will is a fraud. Find the typewriter she wrote it on, and then link it to her,” Danielle suggested. “I bet she made the will after Mr. Carter died. The typewriter has to be around somewhere.”
“That won’t help,” Brian said.
They all looked at Brian. “Why?” Heather asked.
“Because I have a good idea which typewriter she used. Homer had a manual typewriter, and it’s probably still at the house. So if Danielle’s right, and that document was typed as opposed to printed off from a computer, then I imagine the typewriter was the one already in the house.”
“Then find it and see if her fingerprints are on it,” Heather suggested.
“Even if Flora’s are the only fingerprints on the typewriter, that proves nothing,” Brian said. “Remember, that will was supposedly written when Flora first came to work for Carter. So it wouldn’t be suspicious if Flora’s were the only fingerprints on the typewriter now.”
Heather slumped down in the chair. “Oh. You’re right.”
Heather’s cellphone rang. She sat up, grabbed the phone from the side table, looked at it, and said, “It’s Chris.”
While Heather talked to Chris on the phone, Brian and Danielle agreed they needed to discuss the matter with Chief MacDonald. When Heather got off the phone, she said, “I’m babysitting Hunny tonight.”
“Why?” Danielle asked.
“Chris has to go to Portland. Something came up. So he’s going to drop her off in about fifteen minutes. I kind of like having Hunny here. Because if Flora didn’t kill Camilla, then we have a psycho killer on the loose.”
“If Flora killed me, she’s a psycho,” Camilla snapped.
Heather looked at Camilla. “We can argue that anyone who kills a person, not out of self-defense, is a psycho. But if she is the killer, it’s because she had a motive. The type of psycho killer I’m talking about is someone who likes to kill random strangers. Until they catch the killer, I won’t be jogging on the beach alone or leaving my doors unlocked. And if Bowman keeps obsessing over me instead of looking for the person who killed you, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
Brian stood. “I need to get back to the station before Bowman realizes I’m missing. I’m supposed to be filing.”
Heather frowned. “Filing?”
Brian shrugged. “It’s my punishment for talking to Ted.”
Danielle stood. “I’m going to see if Walt will go to the chief’s house with me. We need to let him know what’s going on.”
“I’d go with you, but I need to stay here and wait for Chris to drop off Hunny,” Heather said.
“I think I’ll tag along with Walt and Danielle. I’d like to see how the chief is doing,” Marie said.
Everyone left Heather except for Camilla. Heather looked at the ghost of her boyfriend’s ex-wife, who now sat on the sofa Danielle and Marie had been occupying minutes earlier.
“Did you want to talk about something?” Heather asked.
“I’m just trying to understand you and Brian.”
“Has anyone told you how we got together?” Heather asked.
Camilla shrugged. “Marie said you and Brian shared a harrowing experience and got together after that. But she didn’t really go into it.”
Heather stood up, grabbed two cookies off the plate from the coffee table, and sat back down in her chair. She looked at Camilla, took a bite of a cookie, and said, “Let me tell you a story.”
* * *
Clay Bowman had left the police station after talking to Camilla’s brother, Ted, that morning. When he returned, he noticed both Joe’s and Brian’s cars in the parking lot. Instead of going right to his office after entering the building, he headed for the break room to grab a cup of coffee. But just as he reached the open door, he heard Joe’s and Brian’s voices coming from inside the room. Curious to learn what the two were up to, he remained in the hallway yet stepped out of sight, listening.
“I don’t know where Bowman took off to,” Joe said.
“If we’re lucky, he won’t come back.” Both men laughed.
“Where have you been?” Joe asked.
“I stopped by Heather’s.”
“At her work?”
“No. At her house. Chris told her to take a few days off. He had to go to Portland, so he’s not even in the office.”
“How is Heather doing?”
“How would you feel if someone arrested you for murder? Not terrific. But Danielle was over there trying to cheer her up with her chocolate chip cookies.”
“Danielle’s chocolate chip cookies could cheer me up.” Joe laughed. “So, is she staying with Heather?”
“No. Danielle left the same time I did. She and Walt are going over to check on the chief. She’s probably going to take him some cookies, too.”
“You want to grab some lunch a little later?” Joe asked.
“No, I can’t. Bowman gave me a ton of filing I have to do before I leave work today. It’s going to take me a couple of hours, at least.”
“Filing? Why?”
Brian then told Joe about his morning encounter with Ted and Bowman.
Trying not to make a sound, Bowman backed away from the open doorway to the break room, careful not to let Joe or Brian know he had been listening. He hurried down the hallway. But just as he was about to open his office door, an idea came to him.
* * *
Danielle, Walt, and Marie sat with Chief MacDonald in his living room, with the chief in his recliner and his legs elevated. Minutes earlier, Eddy and Evan had said their hellos, with Evan giving a silent nod to Marie before going to their rooms to play video games.
After the boys left the living room, Danielle recounted what had occurred at the police station between Brian, Bowman, and Camilla’s brother.
The chief shook his head in disbelief. “That sounds like the Bowman I remember. I could kick myself for not telling Lyons I didn’t want to work with his brother-in-law. But to be honest, I never imagined Bowman would actually be able to accept the job. I figured he’d need to give two weeks’ notice, at least. I know he left fairly quickly the first time he worked for us, but he didn’t have a supervisory position like he had at his last job.”
“What do you mean the Bowman you remember?” Danielle asked.
“Just that when he got something in his head, he was like a freaking bulldog. Wouldn’t let it go or step back to see if he was wrong. He’s obviously fixated on Heather being guilty. Not a good trait for someone in his position.”
“I just remembered something we should tell Edward,” Marie said. “Danielle, tell him about the conversation I overheard at the Easter egg hunt, between Clay’s wife and her sister.” Danielle did her best to repeat what Marie had told her at the Easter egg hunt.
“That’s interesting,” the chief muttered when Danielle finished the retelling.
“Can you think of any reason Clay’s wife would have such strong feelings about Camilla?” Danielle asked. “Marie said Camilla was a flirt, and we wondered if Camilla had flirted with Clay, and it made Debbie mad. Or maybe you remember something that happened between the two women.”
Edward leaned back in his chair and considered the question for a moment. “I don’t remember anything happening between Debbie and Camilla back then. In fact, I don’t recall any specific interaction between the two over the years. Nothing stands out. Although, now that I think about it, I remember something Cindy once told me.”
“Your wife knew both of them?” Danielle said.
Edward nodded. “Yes. This was before Cindy got sick. She was just getting ready to have Evan when Clay quit and announced he’d found another job. Around that same period, Brian and Camilla split up, and she moved from town. And, of course, Brian was a mess. He never saw it coming.”
“Wasn’t it, like, six months after their twenty-fifth anniversary?” Danielle asked.
“Yes. I think Cindy was about three months pregnant when we attended their anniversary party.”
“What was it that Cindy told you?” Danielle asked.
“There was an event at the library. I can’t remember what it was for, but Cindy attended. So did Camilla. They were serving champagne, and of course, Cindy didn’t have any because she was well into her pregnancy with Evan. Cindy said Camilla was drinking more than her share of the champagne.”
“Camilla was tipsy?” Danielle asked.
Edward nodded. “Yes. Clay was there in an official capacity, and his wife didn’t attend. Cindy said she was going to the restroom and accidentally walked into one of the meeting rooms. And there was Clay and Camilla.”
“There how?” Marie asked.
Danielle repeated Marie’s question for the chief.
“Cindy opened the door to the meeting room, and she walked in on Clay and Camilla embracing. Clay immediately saw Cindy, pushed Camilla away, and said something about Camilla having too much to drink.”
“Are you saying Camilla and Clay were having an affair?” Danielle asked.
Edward shrugged. “Cindy and I talked about it that night, and she thought it was entirely possible Camilla had instigated what happened in the meeting room. Apparently, Camilla was already tipsy when Clay arrived at the library. From the moment he got there, Camilla started flirting, and Cindy thought he looked uncomfortable with her attention even before Cindy walked into the meeting room and caught them.”
“Do you think Debbie knew about what happened in the library?” Danielle asked.
“It’s likely someone else who was there told Debbie how Camilla was coming onto her husband,” the chief said.
“Camilla was always a flirt,” Marie said. Danielle repeated Marie’s words for the chief.
“She never flirted with me,” the chief said. “But after that incident at the library, I noticed how Camilla would watch Clay when she’d come to the station to see Brian. At the time, I wondered if she was worried he might say something to Brian about what she had done at the library. I don’t know.”
“Camilla left Brian not long after that,” Danielle reminded him.
“True. In fact, Cindy had heard through the wife grapevine that Camilla was leaving town with another man. After hearing she left Brian, that wouldn’t have surprised me.”