Chapter 12
Dear Natasha,
My evil mother-in-law gave me a set of plain white dishes. Apparently, she couldn’t be bothered to read my gift registry. My husband refuses to let me throw them out. I’m very tempted to break a few so I won’t have a full set and can ditch them. What do you think?
Miffed in Breakman, Ohio
Dear Miffed,
It was inconsiderate of her not to check your gift registry. Sell them on eBay and get something that you like.
Natasha
I stopped short when I saw Humphrey. Nina nearly ran into the back of me.
“Humphrey! What are you doing here?” I asked.
“There’s no time for this,” said Nina. “Wolf is already at the door. Humphrey, hide in Sophie’s office. No one ever goes in there. Hurry!”
She hustled me back through the dining room, hissing, “Just go along with us and we’ll explain everything later.”
Wolf already stood in the kitchen when we returned.
We both said hello.
“Everything okay here, Sophie?” he asked. “I was in the neighborhood when my phone rang. Looked like the call came from your phone.”
“Oh, sorry!” I mumbled, frantically trying to come up with an excuse. “I didn’t realize it had gone through. Nina was telling us this hilarious story about why she was barefoot in the airport.”
Wolf was no fool. He knew something was up. I tried to be calm. “I just came in from walking the dogs. Would you like to have breakfast? Nina and Mars made bacon and scrambled eggs.”
Mars coughed. “Correction. Nina made the coffee. I did the cooking and Bernie contributed the breakfast breads.”
I picked up a plate and filled it with bacon and eggs. I held it out to Wolf.
“I’ll pass. Maybe some coffee.”
Nina poured him a mug and we all sat down at the table.
“What were you calling about, Sophie?” asked Wolf.
Yikes! Now I was stuck. I scrambled for something that would sound vaguely plausible. “Bennett Bickford. Is it possible that he killed his mother for money?”
Wolf’s shoulders relaxed. “I guess you heard that he’s a gambler.”
“Precisely,” said Bernie. “Any chance he took a loan from an unsavory type and is under pressure to pay it back?”
“That’s always a possibility but we don’t have any evidence of that.”
“Do you know where he was the morning Lark was murdered?” I asked.
Wolf gazed at me. I munched on a piece of bacon and tried my best to look unconcerned.
“He doesn’t have an alibi if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Really? He’s a suspect then?” That was the best news ever. If they focused on Bennett, it would let Humphrey off the hook.
“Do you know something about Bennett that you’d like to tell me?” Wolf asked.
I hadn’t handled this conversation well. “You saw how eager he and Frank were to sell off poor Lark’s belongings. I just found that oddly suspicious. Who does that? Only someone in dire need of money!”
“He’s on our radar.” Wolf rose, took a plate, and helped himself to the food on the stove after all.
Nina’s eyebrows rose and her eyes grew large. Clearly, she wanted him to leave. But she managed to put on a fake happy face when he returned to the table.
Wolf sat down and sipped his coffee. “Nina, Lark was on the same tour as you, right?”
“Yes. Three weeks in Portugal.”
“I imagine you had many opportunities to speak with Lark?”
“Heaven knows my husband wasn’t available,” she said in a snarky tone. “Lark, Dulci, and I spent a lot of time together,” she said.
“Did Lark say anything to you that caused you concern?” asked Wolf.
“There were a few critical comments about her son-in-law, Frank. He thinks he’s descended from a Portuguese king or something like that.”
“That bothered her?” asked Wolf.
“No. She didn’t believe it. She was worried about Paisley because she’s under so much stress and Frank doesn’t do his share. Apparently, he spends a lot of time and money on his claim to royalty and Lark thought he ought to concentrate more on providing for his family. Paisley works an online job, and renovates furniture, while doing the lion’s share of the childcare. Lark wanted Frank to spend more time working to support his family, royalty or not.”
“Was she afraid of Frank?” he asked.
“If she was, she didn’t tell me. After that guy tried to break into my house, I thought back about our trip. I hoped Lark had said something that I would understand differently in retrospect. But she seemed very content.”
Wolf finished his eggs. “You said you thought about it after the guy tried to break into your house. Do you think he is the same person who murdered Lark?”
“Well, sure! Statistically speaking, the odds of my intruder being someone else are rather low. Why wouldn’t he break into Bernie’s mansion or Natasha’s fancy house? Why choose mine?” Nina sounded angry.
“Did Lark visit any of Frank’s relatives in Portugal?” asked Wolf.
“Not that I’m aware of. What an odd question. Do you think one of them followed us back to Old Town and murdered her? That seems unlikely. Even if that had happened, what would he want from me?”
Wolf shrugged and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Did Lark take a day off from sightseeing when you were in Portugal?”
“We had some free days to do what we wanted. I know Lark went to the beach and did some shopping. I was the one who ran out of patience with those bus tours and bailed on them.”
“Thanks for breakfast. Nina, if you think of anything, even if it’s insignificant, please let me know.” Wolf rose and walked to the door.
When it shut behind him, Nina jumped up and pretended to be pouring coffee, but it didn’t take a genius to realize that she was actually looking out the window watching for his car to leave. “Thank heaven he’s gone. Humphrey! You can come out now!”
Humphrey emerged from the foyer, glancing around to be sure Wolf was gone. He had filled out a little and it suited him. His face was slightly less angular, his chin rounder. He was still on the slender side, but the extra pounds looked good on him.
I stood and gave him a hug.
“Thanks for hiding me.”
“Is Wolf looking for you?” I asked.
“Apparently.” Humphrey sank into one of the chairs by the fireplace. “He went to the funeral home and asked for me. It’s only a matter of time.”
Nina and I exchanged glances. I suspected I knew more than they did. I tried to make him comfortable. “You’re safe here with us. Have you had breakfast?”
He shook his head. “I can’t eat.”
“Oh, Humphrey,” I said softly. At Mrs. McElhaney’s I had been convinced there must be some mistake, but now I was beginning to wonder.
He burst into tears and buried his face in his hands.
Fear clutched at me. He’d killed her. Humphrey had murdered Lark. Instead of comforting him, I found myself taking a step back. This was a Humphrey that I didn’t know.
Nina handed him tissues and said, “You have to eat. You’ll only feel worse if you don’t. Sophie could make you a three-minute egg. And some toast. Will you try to eat it?”
He sobbed louder. I forced myself to pat him on the back but that didn’t seem to comfort him. I put on the kettle and prepared a cup of hot tea with lots of sugar and milk.
“Drink this,” I said.
The milk had cooled the tea enough to drink it. And he did. Hungrily, he downed the entire mug.
I boiled a couple of eggs for him and Mars took care of the toast.
Humphrey came to the table and ate while we watched. His pale eyes were rimmed in red. Wine-colored blotches blazed on his cheeks. I couldn’t imagine how such a gentle and relatively weak guy could have killed anyone.
When he finished eating, I asked, “Were you seeing Lark?”
He nodded, his Adam’s apple jerking up and down.
Bernie’s mouth dropped open and Nina huffed, “And you didn’t tell us?”
“Lark insisted we keep it quiet. She didn’t want her children to know. Have you met them? They expected her to be chaste and devote herself to their father’s memory.” His mouth twisted to the side. “At first, I was uncomfortable about it, but as time went on, it became sort of fun. We were living this wonderful secret life, and no one knew about it.”
“How could you possibly have kept it a secret?” shrieked Nina.
“Mostly we stayed home at her place. I would go over after dark and leave in the morning before people were up and about. It wasn’t as hard as you’d think. No one knew.”
“Mrs. McElhaney knew,” I said softly.
Humphrey scowled. “So that’s how Wolf found out. And I thought she was such a nice lady.”
I tried to find a way to ask if he had been involved in Lark’s death. I finally settled on a simple, “What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“You blacked out?” asked Mars. “That might be a defense.”
“No! When I left Lark’s house that morning, she was fine. We got up and dressed like usual. She was planning to give some gifts to her daughter and grandsons. She had lots of laundry to do, that sort of thing. It was a perfectly ordinary day.”
“Then why are you hiding from Wolf? asked Nina.