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Hawkins opened the door. But instead of the dejected and downbeat Hawkins that usually answered the door, this Hawkins had a cheerful smile and a light in his eye.
He also seemed to be in a very good mood—especially considering that his father’s funeral was only hours earlier.
“Beatrice! It’s so good to see you.” He reached out his hand and shook her free one. “Wynona told me that you’d persuaded her that it would be all right to go to the service today. I’m so glad you did.”
“She wanted to come, it’s just that she was worried how her presence would be received,” said Beatrice.
Hawkins smiled at her and then stepped backwards. “I’m sorry—would you like to come in? Is that something I can carry for you?”
“It’s just some fabric that I brought for Della,” said Beatrice. “I’m trying to make room in my cottage for Wyatt and his things after the wedding. You wouldn’t believe all the clutter I’d collected. I thought maybe Della could use this fabric since she’s starting out with quilting.”
She walked in behind Hawkins and he gestured to a chair in the drawing room. Beatrice shook her head and said quickly, “I really shouldn’t stay. I know it’s been a really rough day for the whole family. As I said, I just wanted to drop these things off for Della. And ... well, I wanted to ask you about something. There was one thing you said that I can’t seem to get out of my mind.”
Hawkins raised his eyebrows. “Sure—if I can help you.”
“You said that Sadie mentioned that she was sad that your father was murdered for the wrong reasons. Do you know what she meant by that or if she somehow knew who was responsible for your father’s death?” asked Beatrice.
Hawkins looked surprised and then thoughtful. “You know, it may sound crazy, but I haven’t even spent time thinking that over. Obviously, something about it stuck in my head for me to mention it to you. Sadie seemed to think that Father was killed for money. And that does make it seem like she knew who was behind it. But she didn’t tell me.” A look of frustration crossed his face. “If I hadn’t been so caught up in my own problems, I’d have asked her right then for an explanation. But I feel as though I might barely have been listening to her. That makes me feel terrible now, saying that.”
Beatrice said quietly, “But you didn’t know she’d be gone when you were having that conversation with her.”
“No. No, I didn’t. Which just serves as a reminder that I need to treasure conversations with everyone since we never know how long a person has left.” Now Hawkins looked slightly abashed. “Sorry. That’s kind of a downer of a thing to say, I guess. Maybe the funeral had that effect on me today. But listen—you weren’t here to talk with me and I was on my way out the door. Wynona said she’d like me to join her when she walks her dog.” He flushed with pleasure. “I know Della’s around here somewhere, although Malcolm is out. Let me give her a call.”
He did and a minute later Della peered out from the top of the steep stone staircase. She smiled when she saw Beatrice.
“Well, hello there!” she said perkily. “Good to see you again today.”
“See you soon, Beatrice,” said Hawkins with a quick grin as he hurried out the door.
“I know you must be surprised to see me again today,” said Beatrice. “But I’ve been clearing out my house in preparation for Wyatt’s moving in, and I wanted to see if you could use these fabrics that I don’t need.” She held up the tote bag.
Della’s cheeks dimpled. “Beatrice, that’s so sweet of you! I was thinking that I’d try to get involved in Village Quilters after all. In memory of Sadie, you know. She was planning on being part of your guild and I thought it might be a nice way to honor her. The fabrics will be perfect.”
Della started to walk down the stairs and Beatrice said quickly, “Don’t worry about coming down—I don’t want to interrupt whatever it is that you were doing. I can just leave them here at the bottom of the stairs.”
Della said, “That would be great.” Then she paused. “You know, I just thought of something you might be interested in seeing. I wasn’t part of the whole tour that Sadie gave you—did she show you the historical quilt the family has?”
Beatrice considered this. “Sadie pointed out a few quilts, but she didn’t especially indicate that one was more special than the others.”
“You’d love this one. They have it hanging in a sitting room up here and it must be at least one hundred and fifty years old. I’m scared to touch it, but if you’d like to see it?”
Beatrice bit back a sigh. She really wanted to head back home and have a nice, simple dinner and a phone call to Wyatt. But it sounded as though she could be spending a lot of extra time with Della, since she was planning on joining the guild. It might do Beatrice good to try and reach out more.
“That would be great,” she said in as peppy a voice as she could muster. She headed up the stairs thinking that at least she was getting her exercise on the staircase. With all the celebration dinners, she’d felt a little celebration weight getting added.
Della paused as Beatrice reached the top landing. “You were having quite the conversation with Hawkins, weren’t you? Doesn’t he seem so much better than he was earlier?”
“He’s vastly improved, I thought. But then, Wynona seems to have that effect on him,” said Beatrice mildly. She still held the bag of fabric and she reached out toward Della. “Here’s the fabric, by the way. I think you’ll have better use for it than I will.”
But Della didn’t seem to want to talk about the fabric and didn’t seem inclined to take it. “You know, the acoustics at the front of the house are a funny thing. You can hear every word someone says at the front door upstairs. That’s something to do with all the marble and granite, I think. Stone has a way of helping voices to carry.”
Beatrice felt a cold shiver go up her spine. “Our conversation was fairly innocuous, Della. Although maybe you didn’t find it so.”
“You ask a lot of questions,” said Della with a smirking smile. “Too many questions, I think. It would probably be best if you just let the family be. There’s lots of grieving to get through for both Malcolm and Hawkins.”
Beatrice backed slowly away. The mention of Malcolm made her think about Malcolm’s alibi being blown. If Malcolm hadn’t been sleeping and had left the house, then he couldn’t be Della’s alibi, either. And that particular thought made her reach surreptitiously in the tote bag until her hand grabbed the shears.
“Where’s Malcolm?” asked Beatrice, a little breathlessly.
“Out. He’s taking care of estate business,” said Della.
“Which is a good thing, since you’re about to be very wealthy,” said Beatrice flatly.
“Exactly,” said Della with a simpering smile.
Beatrice backed up until she could feel part of the bannister bump against her back. “It’s a funny thing about Malcolm’s alibi.”
“What’s that?” asked Della, raising her eyebrows.
“Well, it wasn’t true. At least, his story wasn’t exactly true. He neglected the part where he couldn’t sleep and decided to go for a walk. A walk that likely intersected with Sadie’s walk,” said Beatrice.
Della’s face closed down, the perkiness and even the simpering gone now. “Malcolm would never hurt Sadie.”
“No, I have the feeling that he wouldn’t. He was a devoted brother to her. But you were devoted to Malcolm. You’d have done anything for him—and for the money that he was going to inherit. And if Malcolm’s alibi was wrecked by the fact that someone saw him out on the grounds, then your alibi was also wrecked. Because Malcolm was your alibi and you were his,” said Beatrice.
Della’s eyes flashed with anger. “See? All you do is nose around. You should learn how to mind your own business. You’ve got a wedding to plan. The last thing you should be doing is getting involved in things like this.”
“Like what? Murder? Let me guess how this all started. Actually, I don’t really have to guess, do I? Sadie knew how it started. She wasn’t exactly her father’s biggest fan, but she was upset because she thought that his death was motivated by greed. She spent the final year of her life trying to make things right with her father—even though it sounded as though Sadie wasn’t at fault for their estrangement. And she knew something. She knew who murdered her father and why, didn’t she?”
Della shrugged a shoulder languidly, but her eyes were locked on Beatrice’s.
“And you knew that Sadie knew,” said Beatrice finally.
Della gave a short laugh. “I can promise you that Sadie said nothing to me about it. Would she seriously have taken me to your bridal shower if she’d thought I’d killed her father?”
“I think she must have only suspected your involvement then. But something made her realize it must have been you. You seem like you’re always lurking around, for one thing,” said Beatrice.
Della snorted. “That’s ironic for you to say.”
“That day that we were trying to help you plan Caspian’s funeral, for instance. You were outside the room quite a bit, but I bet you knew a lot about what was said. You were getting drinks and snacks together, but you were also listening. And that was the day that Sadie mentioned something about having a strong suspicion about who might be responsible. You could also have heard Sadie tell Hawkins that she knew the motive for the murder. You most certainly heard Hawkins repeat what Sadie said when he was speaking to me a few minutes ago,” said Beatrice.
“What does my ‘lurking around’, as you call it, have to do with Caspian’s death?” asked Della, sounding bored. She took another, rather menacing, step toward Beatrice.
“You’re very good at being out of sight. Good at listening in. Basically, you’re good at being sneaky. Which is the perfect trait for quickly getting rid of Caspian. Because he was starting to turn on you, wasn’t he, Della? Did he sense that greediness that Sadie was talking about? At any rate, whether he was trying to influence Malcolm to break up with you, or whether you simply were ready for Malcolm to receive his inheritance, you were ready to get rid of him. It was probably pretty easy to slip the pills into Caspian’s drink. Sometimes the drink was unattended and sometimes you helped to make the drink, yourself. I suspect, while Malcolm was getting ready, you slipped away. You listened as our little tour of the house, led by Sadie, went by. When the coast was clear, you slipped in Caspian’s room, picked up a pillow, and smothered him while he slept.”
Della was silent, eyes steely.
Beatrice took a deep breath and continued. “Sadie must have realized you did it. Maybe because she couldn’t picture either of her brothers as a killer—or her best friend. So you needed to get rid of Sadie, too.”
Della rolled her eyes. “I turned in early the night Sadie died.”
“Maybe you did. But I think that you watched Malcolm turn in early. Then you headed out after Sadie. Barkis has been doing a lot of landscaping lately and it was easy enough to find a weapon—there was a wheelbarrow full of paving bricks right there. Maybe you even had a conversation with Sadie before you struck her,” said Beatrice.
Something seemed to snap in Della then. “Maybe I didn’t. Maybe Sadie never saw what was coming.”
“And then you shoved her off the dock into the water. Just to be sure she was dead,” said Beatrice sharply.
“I’m never one to leave a job halfway finished,” said Della.
Beatrice said, “I thought that when Malcolm was wandering around that he must have seen Sadie’s body. That maybe he was too worried about how it would look if he was the one to have discovered her and so he didn’t report it. But now I’m thinking he never did see Sadie. That it was just as he said—that he couldn’t sleep after supper and he decided to take a walk. Maybe he even saw Sadie on his walk ... when she was still alive. But the property here is large and he kept on walking. I’m thinking that he saw you when he was wrapping up his walk, Della. Even though you’d turned in early.”
Della said, “I was almost to the house when he saw me.”
“And Malcolm didn’t know that you’d just murdered his sister, did he? Because he didn’t see the body. But you must have given him an excuse for what you were doing outside,” said Beatrice.
“I told him that I was looking for him, of course,” said Della with a shrug. “That I’d woken up and didn’t see him there. I got up to look for him.”
“And then, the next morning, Hawkins found Sadie’s body. Surely, Malcolm must have wondered if you had something to do with it, Della.”
Della snorted. “Love is blind, remember? He was more concerned about the fact that he’d been outside during the time she was likely murdered. He was concerned about his alibi. He didn’t even question me when I told him that I was only out for a second and out looking for him.”
“It sounds like he was still holding out hope that you weren’t involved,” said Beatrice. “What’s he going to think when he knows that you were responsible for both his father’s death and his sister’s?”
“He’s not going to think anything, because he’s not going to know about it,” hissed Della. She lunged at Beatrice, but Beatrice was ready. She gripped the shears in her right hand and threw the large tote bag with her left hand.