Mary sat in a straight-backed chair opposite Dan’s desk, trying not to fidget. Ellen wasn’t doing as well. She shifted her weight in her chair beside Mary, picked up her Styrofoam coffee cup, put it back on the corner of Dan’s desk and sighed heavily.
‘All that isn’t going to help me read faster.’ Dan didn’t take his eyes off the page he was reading.
‘First-graders read faster than you.’ Ellen squirmed again.
Dan closed the diary and surveyed them both before reaching for his coffee.
‘Well?’ Mary leaned forward, almost not noticing the toll the chair’s hard surface had taken on her behind.
‘What do you think?’ Ellen leaned her elbows on the edge of Dan’s desk and stared at him intently.
‘What do you want me to say?’ He took a sip of the coffee, made a face and put it back on his desk. ‘That after reading a month’s worth of Cliff’s ramblings I now know who murdered him and why?’
‘Yes.’
Dan smiled at his wife. ‘I appreciate your faith in me, but it doesn’t usually work that way. Wish it did.’
‘Dan, you must have some idea what Cliff was thinking. We only read a few pages. They weren’t very clear, but it sounded …’
‘As if Cliff was contemplating blackmail?’ He picked the book back up and held it as if he could squeeze more information out of it. ‘He may have. However, he never comes right out and says so. He rambles. Talks about how sorry he is for some of the things he did, how Alma Maxwell still, after all these years, won’t speak to him. He says he can’t blame her, only he doesn’t know how to fix it for her. He talks about how he knows Father D’Angelo felt terrible about losing his cat and he guesses he’s responsible. So he found him another one.’
‘He found him another one, all right.’ Mary paused, coffee cup halfway to her mouth. ‘According to Agnes, he got Father D’Angelo another cat without even talking to him.’
‘That seems a little high-handed, but at least it was well meant.’
‘Not the way Agnes tells it.’ Ellen stretched out her legs and sat back. ‘She says it’s meaner than a bobcat. Says he gave Father D’Angelo the cat on purpose. I guess Father doesn’t know what to do with it, but its terrorizing him and Mrs Farrell.’
‘Who’s Mrs Farrell?’
‘His housekeeper.’
‘Oh.’ Dan shook his head a little. ‘Most of what’s in here are lamentations on the hurt he caused people and what he can do to make it up for them. Doesn’t sound as if there was much.’
Ellen and Mary looked at each other. ‘Who else?’
‘Who else what?’
‘You know very well what I’m talking about.’ Mary used her best middle-schoolteacher voice.
Dan grinned. ‘Who else did he think he’d hurt and what did he plan to do about it?’
‘Luke, for one.’
‘Luke who?’ Ellen looked mystified. ‘Do we know a Luke?’
‘Luke from the library.’ Mary turned toward her. ‘You remember him. Young, ponytail, diamond earring.’
‘Oh. That Luke. What did Cliff do to him?’
‘I’ll read it to you. It’s one of the most poignant.’ Dan opened the diary and flipped through pages, pausing at a couple before stopping. ‘This is it.’ He glanced up at the two of them, both waiting, sighed a little and started.
‘“Every time I think of young Luke, I want to cry. It’s hard to realize what I’d do for a drink back then. I don’t think Liam MacDougle really asked me to rig that junior handler class. I remember him telling me he’d spot me a bottle if I helped his kid, Ronnie. He meant coach him. I used to be a good coach. There was just about nothing I couldn’t get a dog to do and I could teach the kids how to handle the dog too. The kids I coached won a lot. Liam is an honorable man. That day – it’s still foggy. Why I thought … Then, after it was all over and Luke got thrown out for trying to show a drugged dog, the look Liam gave me, I’ll never forget that. Ever. I don’t remember if his kid won or not. I sure remember Luke not winning. Why, oh why, did I do those things?”’
Mary sucked in her breath, hard. It made her stomach hurt. So that was what happened. ‘I wonder if Luke knows how Cliff felt.’
‘Not if Cliff hadn’t approached him yet.’ The look on Dan’s face was speculative, as if he, too, was mulling a possibility over in his mind.
‘Cliff seems to have tried to make amends to everyone else he could think of.’
‘Or at least have thought about it. His writing about it in his diary doesn’t necessarily translate into action.’
Mary nodded. Ellen was right. There was nowhere in the part of the diary she read that mentioned any overtures Cliff had made to anyone. ‘That’s true. He talks about making amends but doesn’t say how. Except for Father D’Angelo’s cat.’
‘That doesn’t sound much like making amends.’ Ellen bent down to pick up her purse, took out her cell phone and checked the time.
‘You know, the more I think about it, the more his comments sound speculative.’ Mary spoke slowly, as she tried to remember how Cliff phrased his cryptic sentences.
‘As if he was assessing his chances for blackmail?’ Ellen looked over at Dan, who shrugged. ‘All those people he mentions, they were all victims, them and their animals. He may have been sorry, but he doesn’t say he did anything to ask for their forgiveness. People like Alma, like Father D’Angelo, don’t seem like potential blackmail victims. To the best of my knowledge, they’re both squeaky clean and neither of them has any money. He could hardly blackmail Luke. He mentions the Blankenships but they were good friends and no comment he makes refutes that. He talks about the Blisses being involved in something, but he doesn’t say what and it doesn’t sound ominous. So, who was he thinking about?’
‘I have no idea. If he had decided to try to blackmail someone, I can’t see who from his diary.’ Dan shut the little book and laid it on his deck. ‘Where did you find it? Sergeant Ricker and I searched that place pretty thoroughly yesterday afternoon. I got all his papers and personal things from his desk and brought them back here. We went through everything, I thought.’
‘It was in his pillowcase.’
Dan stared at his wife then burst out laughing. ‘His pillowcase?’
Ellen nodded. ‘I was stripping the bed, packing up all the linens and it fell out. I picked it up to see what it was and it fell open. I read some and then called to Aunt Mary. It sure sounded as if he planned to blackmail someone.’
Dan nodded. ‘It does. Only, who?’
Mary shrugged. ‘That’s why we brought it over. We thought you needed to see it right away.’
Dan leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands.
Mary and Ellen waited.
Finally, he sat up straight. ‘Have you finished packing up all his stuff?’
Mary shook her head. ‘Almost. We’ve finished the kitchen, and Agnes did the living room. We were working on his bedroom when we found the book.’
‘OK. Are you going back? Cliff’s landlady wants everything out this afternoon, and Ricker will be there …’ he glanced at the digital clock on his desk … ‘in a little more than an hour. Is Agnes still there?’
‘I can’t go back. I have an appointment to list Alma’s house and I need to go home and change.’ Ellen pulled out her cell phone and glanced at the time. ‘I really need to get going.’
‘I can for a little while, but I promised Luanne I’d pick up the children after school. She does the bookkeeping out at Golden Hills winery. It’s Friday and she has to close out the books and can’t get away until about five. I want to be there when they come out of their classes.’ She paused and took a deep breath. ‘Dan, do you really think the children are in danger? Luanne is worried sick. So is Tony, and they’re trying so hard not to let the children feel it. Today is Renaldo’s soccer practice and he pitched a fit when they told him he couldn’t go. I said I’d take him, but they both felt that – well, the field is big and the kids are all over the place. Hard to keep them in sight, so they decided he needed to skip it. I have errands to run, and they can tag along until I can deliver them to Luanne at the winery.’
It was as if a cloud settled on Dan’s face. ‘I don’t know much of anything yet, and I don’t want to take a chance they’ve spooked this guy. We know the kids saw him. He’s got to be wondering if they can identify him. I’d rather have Ronaldo mad at all of us for making him miss soccer practice than see him hurt, or worse.’
A shiver ran through Mary, from her head to her toes. The very thought of anything happening to those children … ‘Ronaldo will have to deal with it. How long do you think we’re going to have to keep this up?’ She ran her calendar through her head, wondering how much Luanne would need her and which committee meetings wouldn’t bore them to tears. All of them would.
‘Dan,’ Ellen was on her feet, her tote bag slung over her shoulder, ‘have they done the autopsy yet?’
‘As we speak.’ He paused, as if trying to decide what to say next. ‘Doc did tell me one thing.’
Ellen stood still; so did Mary.
Dan smiled. ‘You two watch too many crime shows. He says he was stabbed with something long, thin and pointed. It went in through the rib cage and he’s pretty sure right into his heart. He’ll know more when he gets in there.’ He leaned over his desk, pushed some buttons on his desk phone and picked up the receiver. ‘How long will it take to finish boxing up all his things? I have to get them out of there and over to St Mark’s this afternoon. It was nice of Les to say he’d store them. When we locate the daughter, we’ll know what to do with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of his things end up in your next rummage sale, Mary.’
Mary had a little trouble making the shift from long, sharp murder weapons and possible harm to the children back to Cliff’s old dishtowels. ‘Oh. An hour or so. Agnes may be finished by now.’ She thought about the lovely old buffet and hoped Dan found the daughter soon. She got to her feet and steadied herself. ‘You’d better get this solved, and fast. We’re not going to be able to keep those kids under wraps for forever.’