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THE NEXT MORNING, BEATRICE was pulling a few weeds in the bed in front of the house when her phone rang. It was one of the church ladies who’d helped at Gerald’s funeral reception.
“I’m so sorry to ask this,” she said, “But I’ve left something at Laura Carpenter’s house yesterday. I was going to run by today, but my mother has fallen and broken her hip and I’ve had to drop everything. Is there any way that you could run by there? I wouldn’t ask except for the fact that it’s a pair of glasses. I take them on and off all day, and I guess I left them in the kitchen somewhere.”
That was perfect because Beatrice needed a good excuse to speak with Laura again, and she’d already brought food over. “That’s no problem at all,” she said. “Would you like me to bring them by the hospital when I have them?”
The church lady blew out a sigh of relief. “Could you? I hate to ask you to do that because I’m all the way in Lenoir.”
“I’m happy to do it,” said Beatrice.
She gave Laura a quick call, and Laura told her to come on by. Twenty minutes later, Beatrice was there, and Laura was ushering her in.
Beatrice wasn’t going to turn down the invitation but said, “I’m sorry to intrude like this. You must be exhausted after a long and emotional day like yesterday.”
Laura said, “Oh, it’s an odd thing, but I’m energized around other people. The service was exhausting, for sure, but the reception afterwards really helped me to recoup. I did have a tough time falling asleep last night, though, because I was hyped up from having company here.”
She handed Beatrice the misplaced eyeglasses and then said, “In fact, I’d love to speak with you for a few minutes. I’m procrastinating doing something that I don’t enjoy and having a conversation with you sounds like a nice way of putting things off.” She gestured to the sofa.
Beatrice smiled and took a seat. “I’d love to stay and talk for a few minutes. Sometimes a distraction is a good thing.”
Laura made a face. “In this case, it definitely is. I’m packing. Well, packing and also making piles of Gerald’s things to give away. It’s not the easiest or most fun thing in the world to do.”
Beatrice managed to contrive to look surprised. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were moving. Just moving to a different home in Dappled Hills? Or leaving town altogether?”
Laura sighed. “Leaving Dappled Hills altogether, I’m afraid. Gerald was really the only thing keeping me here.” She quickly added in case Beatrice thought she was being rude, “That’s not to say that Dappled Hills isn’t a lovely town. But I haven’t really done a good job establishing a friend base here. And, with Gerald gone, I don’t feel as if I have anyone in my corner. I think it’s just as well that I leave.”
Beatrice innocently said, “I’m surprised that Gerald’s children aren’t persuading you to stay.”
Laura gave her a rueful look. “Let’s face it—I was too young and they were too old for me to be a real stepmother to them. And we’re nothing alike, so we really couldn’t become friends. It was always something of an awkward relationship, at the best of times. I don’t think they’ll be sorry to see me leave, especially now.”
“What’s different now?” asked Beatrice.
Laura looked down as she twisted her wedding ring on her finger. “Well, Gerald’s will. I don’t think that it was exactly what Mark and Joan were expecting. It’s a pity because I always feel that there shouldn’t be any surprises in wills. Everyone should know everything in advance because it’s the living that have to pay the consequences when someone is disappointed.”
“And someone was disappointed in this instance?” Beatrice asked.
“I’m afraid they both were. Neither of the children apparently thought that Gerald was going to settle as much money on me as he actually did. I guess they thought he’d just assign some decent amount to make sure that I could comfortably find a job or marry again. But instead, I came out rather well.” Laura had a faint smug expression on her face.
“Are you in charge of the business, as well? The pimento cheese company?”
Laura swiftly shook her head. “Heavens, no. No, and I wouldn’t want to be. I’d have no idea what I was doing. But if Mark sells the business, as it seems very likely that he will, then I’ll profit from that, too. The unfortunate thing is that the whole thing has made Mark and Joan very put-out with me. In fact, Mark is consulting lawyers. He is considering contesting the will.”
Beatrice shifted a bit uncomfortably. This was getting into very personal territory.
Laura said quickly, “Oh, please, let’s talk it over. I’m sorry, it’s just that I don’t have many people to talk to here, and this is a way for me to sort it all out.”
Beatrice nodded and said, “I don’t think that a lawyer could possibly say that Gerald wasn’t in his right mind when the will was made. Aside from that, I don’t know how Mark would be able to proceed.”
Beatrice said, “That may be. But the fact remains that the will is unchanged.”
Laura looked a bit cheered at this before deflating a little again. “Regardless, I can’t stick around town. The air feels poisonous right now to me. Besides, there’s nothing really here for me now that Gerald is gone.”
Beatrice sighed. “It’s been hard in town lately. I suppose you must have heard about Salome.”
Laura looked blankly at her.
Beatrice said, “Salome Hewitt?”
Again there was no sign of recognition on Laura’s face. She tilted her head to one side as Noo-noo frequently did when she was trying to figure out what Beatrice was saying.
“Sorry, you might not have known her name,” said Beatrice. “Salome Hewitt was Gerald’s assistant.”
Laura said, “Oh, his assistant. No, you’re right, I never knew her name. I never really visited Gerald at the office. It was completely his domain, no matter what Mark thought.” She sighed. “I suppose it’s Mark’s domain now. That thought is rather disturbing to me. What happened with Salome?”
“She was murdered,” said Beatrice.
This seemed to shake Laura up a little. “No way! She couldn’t possibly have. I mean, two murders in a week in a town like Dappled Hills? What on earth is the world coming to?”
Beatrice said, “The police seem to be operating on the belief that they’re connected. The police haven’t visited you to ask you anything about it?”
“No, why would they? Like I said, I didn’t know anything about Gerald’s life at the office. I never went there, and he didn’t tell me much about work. If he ever even mentioned his secretary, he’d simply have said ‘my assistant’ and didn’t name her. Was she working for Mark then? Since he took over from Gerald, of course?”
Laura really didn’t seem to know very much about what transpired at the Dappled Hills Pimento Cheese company.
“Actually,” said Beatrice, “Gerald had fired Salome some time ago. She’d been working at the quilt shop while she was looking for work.”
Laura blinked at her. “She must have screwed something up. Sorry, I know that must sound insensitive. But Gerald was a total perfectionist and quite organized. Maybe Salome lost some paperwork or filed something in the wrong place. He could be quite unforgiving when it came to those types of errors.”
Beatrice didn’t mention the real reason that Gerald had fired Salome—because she was requesting child support. Apparently, or at least as far as Beatrice could tell, Laura didn’t know anything about it.
“When did this happen?” asked Laura.
Beatrice told her and Laura said, “I’m sorry about that. I hate to hear that one of the employees was in such a bad situation. But again, I wouldn’t have any information about that. When she was murdered, I was busy here at the house, packing. I have quite a bit of the upstairs finished at this point.”
Beatrice nodded.
Laura said quickly, “Anyway, enough about me and my troubles. Tell me how things are going on your end. I know about your horrid kitchen renovation—Joan mentioned that one day. And I saw you talking with Colleen after the funeral . . . I had to run back to the church to get my purse. I’m sorry you had to deal with her.” She made a face.
Beatrice said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you knew her.”
Laura cocked an eyebrow at Beatrice. “I don’t really. She and Gerald did fundraising things together. She fancies herself some sort of a society person, if you can have high society in Lenoir. I avoid her whenever I can. Even her voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me.”
Beatrice wasn’t quite sure what to say to this, so she kept her mouth shut and gave a sympathetic nod.
Laura continued, “You must have noticed how bossy Colleen is. Hasn’t she tried bulldozing you at the church? She sure looked as if she was trying to when I saw the two of you in conversation after the service.”
Beatrice said ruefully, “You’re right. She was trying to get her way. I gather that’s not unusual.”
Laura shrugged. “That’s what Gerald said. I think she drove him crazy.”
Beatrice glanced at her watch. “I’m sorry, I’ve kept you for longer than I should have. I know you’re busy packing.”
Laura gave her a wry smile. “As fast as I can. But I’m glad you came by. It was good to speak to somebody. I sure can’t speak with the family, and I really don’t have anyone close to me here.”
Minutes later, Beatrice set off for Lenoir with the eyeglasses, despite the church lady’s protestations, and hand-delivered them. Then she set off back for Dappled Hills.
She remembered that she had a library book in the backseat, needing to be returned. She’d planned on just dropping it in the drive-by box outside the library, but decided she needed a few minutes of peace and quiet. She parked and walked inside. Beatrice always loved the inside of the old library. It was warmly lit and the librarians were always friendly and ready with a book recommendation. There were pastels on the walls and lots of reading nooks. One wall near the periodicals had a large gas fireplace that ran in the winter.
Since Beatrice already had the novel she was reading with Wyatt, she headed to the periodicals to skim through a few. She raised her eyebrows and grinned when she saw Ramsay there. He gave her a sheepish smile.
“Not like I have anything else to do,” he said with a chuckle.
“I’m the same way. I just wanted to escape for a few minutes,” said Beatrice.
He grinned at her. “Now that I find hard to believe. You and Wyatt are like two peas in a pod. And now you’ve got a little grandbaby coming? Life sounds pretty good.” He paused. “At least, pretty good if you two stopped finding bodies all the time.”
“Have you found out anything?” asked Beatrice.
He hesitated and Beatrice said, “I won’t say a word. Promise.”
“Oh, I know you won’t. I think I’ve just gotten super-cautious because of Meadow. She cannot keep a secret to save her life! Here’s the thing. We found some things in Salome’s stuff.” He sighed. “How well did you know Salome?”
“Not as well as I probably should have,” said Beatrice.
“Now you’re sounding more like Meadow,” said Ramsay with a shake of his head. “She keeps saying that she feels terrible that Salome was struggling and that she really didn’t know about it. It’s the whole ‘sisterhood of quilting’ thing. The reason I ask, is because I just can’t really see Salome as this cloak-and-dagger type of person.”
Beatrice frowned. “Cloak-and-dagger? You mean she was sneaking around over something?”
“It sure looks that way. Now, I know that Salome worked for Gerald for a long while and I know a little about how their relationship changed.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I don’t think that Gerald came off looking all that great.”
“No, I don’t, either.”
“But the thing is that Salome had all these documents that it looks like she copied from the office. Even if she was supposed to have them in her possession at one point, she sure shouldn’t have had them at her home and after she’d already lost her job,” said Ramsay.
“What sorts of documents were these?” asked Beatrice.
“Well, it took us a while to sort through them, but they all appear to be instances in which Gerald made deposits to make the business’s bottom line look better,” said Ramsay.
Beatrice frowned. “You mean that Gerald may have been using his own money to supplement the business’s income? But why would he have done something like that? From everything that I’ve heard, he had no intention of selling the factory.”
Ramsay sighed. “Your guess is as good as mine. I think the guess I’m currently favoring is that Gerald was so proud of that company that he wanted to ensure the bottom line looked profitable, even if the business had some ups and downs. There was other evidence that he’d made the company look better than it did, too.”
Beatrice said slowly, “I wonder if Mark knew that Gerald was siphoning personal funds to supplement the business?”
Ramsay shrugged. “Not sure. But my intuition tells me no. He’d have gotten into huge trouble if he’d sold the business, and then it was later discovered that it wasn’t as profitable as Mark had made out.”
“And those were the only documents that Salome had?” asked Beatrice. “She didn’t just have a slew of papers from the office that she’d somehow forgotten to hand over?”
Ramsay shook his head. “The papers only pertained to this one matter. It wasn’t as if she literally brought her work home every night, and there were lots of others. So we have to assume that Salome deliberately chose these damaging documents for a reason.”
“To have some leverage. To try to make Gerald do what she needed him to do,” said Beatrice.
“Or Mark,” suggested Ramsay quietly. “Maybe she tried it twice. Maybe she approached Gerald before he died and asked him to lend support to her or else she’d disclose what she knew and leak the documents. Then, perhaps, when she didn’t get anywhere and after Gerald’s death, she thought Mark was a softer target.”
“I don’t know that I’d think that,” said Beatrice. “Mark doesn’t seem like any sort of a softie to me. He’s all business, all the time, just like his father was.”
“Then maybe she was simply desperate. Gerald didn’t leave her anything in the will, of course, and Salome wasn’t sure how she was going to support her daughter the way she wanted to. Maybe she set out to talk to Mark about it and push him to give her some sort of an allowance or a settlement,” said Ramsay.
“Then he became upset and killed her,” said Beatrice levelly. “Is that where you’re going with this?”
Ramsay said, “It’s a possibility. One of several that we’re mulling over. But at least it’s a development that we can pursue. Whoever this murderer is, he’s done a good job of covering his tracks.” He looked at Beatrice. “Have you found out anything on your end lately? I know you’re good at sniffing out leads in a very innocuous way.”
Beatrice gave a short laugh. “This time it seems as if everyone is spilling all their innermost thoughts to me. I believe it must be the Wyatt Effect.”
Ramsay raised his eyebrows. “What’s that?”
“Being married to a busy minister. I’m hearing all the things that Wyatt would be hearing, if Wyatt could be everywhere at once. I did just leave Laura Carpenter.”
Ramsay said, “Still packing pretty fast?”
“She is. She called the environment ‘poisonous’ over there.”
Ramsay blinked at her. “That’s a new one on me. What on earth is so poisonous? Looks like a nice, big house. Gerald left her really comfortable, too.”
“She meant the way that Gerald’s children were treating her,” said Beatrice.
Ramsay said, “Well, let’s face it. She made out really well from the will, is probably seeing someone already, and is a suspect in a murder. I’m sure the kids aren’t exactly delighted with her. That would make me feel uncomfortable, too.”
“Laura said that Mark and Joan were contesting the will,” said Beatrice.
“Yes, we’ve been following that pretty closely, as you can imagine. There’s definitely some bad blood happening there. Oh, and Laura won’t be leaving town until we’re completely finished speaking with her . . . we’ve cautioned her about that,” said Ramsay.
“That makes sense. I did speak with Mark before the service, and he didn’t seem happy about the fact that Laura was leaving already. He thinks that she’s already seeing someone, too.”
Ramsay said, “That’s who we got that information from. He said that she was hanging up the phone in a hurry when he walked into the room.”
“The main impression that I got from Mark was that he wanted to make sure the business wasn’t harmed at all. That the employees had a good transition from Gerald being at the helm to his being at the helm. And that the company wasn’t harmed by the murder and the suspicion that’s fallen on the family.”
Ramsay said wryly, “Well, that’s a tall order. We’ll see how it goes. If we can go ahead and wrap up the case rapidly, though, he may have more of a shot at normalcy.” He added, “Okay, enough of my work-talk. Tell me how your reading is going with Wyatt.”
“Much better this time now that we’re both reading fiction, like I told you. I think the fact that it’s historical fiction makes it more interesting for Wyatt, too. The only problem is that I’ve gotten a little ahead of him now, and I have to wait for Wyatt to catch up so I won’t inadvertently spoil the story for him,” said Beatrice.
“I can’t imagine you giving spoilers,” said Ramsay. “Doesn’t seem in character.”
“They’re accidental spoilers. Apparently, I’m a very animated reader,” said Beatrice with a smile. “I’ll gasp or laugh or say ‘oh no.’”
“That’s what years of living alone will do for you,” said Ramsay with a laugh.
“Exactly, and now I have this terrible habit,” said Beatrice. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to kick it, either, after decades of doing it. I didn’t even realize that it was something I did until Wyatt pointed it out.”
“Sounds like Wyatt has been keeping really busy.”
“Just about as busy as you are,” said Beatrice. “I know you’ve been swamped with these cases.”
“Yes, but the difference is that I want to be swamped right now. Well, maybe not as much as I am today, but overall, it’s a help to me. Otherwise, I’d be at home with Meadow. And Meadow, much as I love her, is getting more gaga over that baby every day. If I stayed at home, I think I’d go a little nuts.”
“That’s going to change just as soon as the baby’s born,” said Beatrice in a teasing tone. “Then Meadow will never be home because she’ll be holding her grandbaby at Piper and Ash’s house.”
“Very true. And it’s a day to look forward to,” said Ramsay reverently.