62

MAGGIE HUNG UP AT THE END OF HER CALL FROM NEIL and went to the stove. Automatically she filled the kettle. She wanted the feeling of hot tea warming her. She needed something that would help her separate the jarring reality of the obituaries from the disturbing, even crazy, thoughts that were shooting through her head.

She did a quick mental review of what she had learned so far.

Last week when she had taken Greta Shipley to the cemetery, they had left flowers at Nuala’s grave and the graves of five other women.

Someone had placed a bell on three of those graves as well as on Nuala’s. She had found them there herself.

There was an impression, as if a bell had been sunk into the earth, near Mrs. Rhinelander’s tombstone, but for some reason that bell was missing.

Greta Shipley had died in her sleep two days later, and barely twenty-four hours after she was buried a bell had been placed on her grave as well.

Maggie laid the printouts of the obituaries on the table and read quickly through them again. They confirmed what had occurred to her yesterday: Winifred Pierson, the one woman in that group whose grave showed no evidence of a bell, had a large, caring family. She had died with her personal physician in attendance.

With the exception of Nuala, who had been murdered in her own home, the other women had died in their sleep.

Meaning, Maggie thought, that no one was in attendance at the time of death.

They had all been under the ongoing care of Dr. William Lane, director of Latham Manor.

Dr. Lane. Maggie thought of how quickly Sarah Cushing had rushed her mother to an outside doctor. Was it because she knew, or maybe subconsciously suspected, that Dr. Lane was not a skillful practitioner?

Or perhaps too skillful a practitioner? a nagging inner voice queried. Remember, Nuala was murdered.

Don’t think that way, she warned herself. But no matter how one looked at it, she thought, Latham Manor had been a jinx for a lot of people. Two of Mr. Stephens’ clients had lost their money while they were waiting to get into the place, and five women, all Latham residents—who weren’t that elderly, or that sick—had died in their sleep there.

What had made Nuala change her mind about selling her house and going to live there? she wondered again. And what made Douglas Hansen, who had sold stocks to the women who lost their money, show up here wanting to buy this house? Maggie shook her head. There has to be a connection, she told herself, but what is it?

The kettle was whistling. As Maggie got up to make the tea, the phone rang. It was Neil’s father. He said, “Maggie, I’ve got those locks. I’m on my way over. If you have to go out, tell me where I can find a key.”

“No, I’ll be here.”

Twenty minutes later he was at the door. After a “Good to see you, Maggie,” he said, “I’ll start upstairs.”

While he changed the locks, she worked in the kitchen, straightening drawers, tossing out the odds and ends she found in most of them. The sound of his footsteps overhead was reassuring; she used the time while she worked to once more think through all that she knew. Putting together all the pieces of the puzzle she had so far, she came to a decision: she had absolutely no right to voice any suspicions about Dr. Lane as yet, but there was no reason not to talk about Douglas Hansen, she decided.

Robert Stephens came back to the kitchen. “Okay, you’re all set. No charge, but can you spare a cup of coffee? Instant is fine. I’m easy to please.”

He settled in a chair, and Maggie knew he was studying her. Neil sent him, she thought. He could tell I was upset.

“Mr. Stephens,” she began, “you don’t know very much about Douglas Hansen, do you?”

“Enough to know that he’s wrecked the lives of some very nice women, Maggie. But have I ever met him? No. Why do you ask?”

“Because both the ladies you know who lost their money thanks to him had been planning to go into Latham Manor, which meant they could afford a sizable outlay of money. My stepmother also had planned to live there, but she changed her mind at the last minute. Last week, Hansen showed up here and offered me fifty thousand dollars more for this house than Nuala almost sold it for, and from what I’ve learned, that’s much more than it’s worth.

“My point is, I wonder how he happened to contact the women you know who invested with him, and I wonder what made him show up on this doorstep. There’s got to be more than just coincidence at play here.”