Chapter 37
Hayley stood on the threshold of Albert and Regina Knoxville’s bedroom, shifting uncomfortably, feeling strange at being in such close proximity to a deeply personal private space. But Albert didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, there was a look of relief as he opened the closet door and showed Hayley the rack of dresses and pantsuits that were crammed onto the small rack along with dozens of shoe and hat boxes stuffed on the top shelf. On the floor were more shoes and sandals.
“She was quite the clothes horse,” Albert said softly as he stared at all of his late wife’s belongings. “I’ve been meaning to clean all this out and donate it to Goodwill, but every time I come up here to do it, I get lost in the memories and I just can’t seem to get anywhere.”
“It’s totally understandable, Albert. Maybe with some more time . . .” Hayley’s voice trailed off.
“I guess I kind of keep hoping this is all a bad dream and I’ll wake up and she’ll still be here . . .”
His eyes welled up with tears.
Hayley didn’t know what to say. When she had shown up at Albert’s door to ask him if he knew about Regina’s affair with Julio, it had seemed like a good idea at the time. But when confronted with Albert’s sad, distraught eyes, she just couldn’t bring herself to actually ask the question. Albert had invited her in, offered some tea, which she declined, and just stared at the walls as Hayley went on about every topic that popped into her head except the one that had brought her here. She just didn’t want to hurt the poor man any more than he already had been by his beloved wife’s untimely demise.
When Hayley finally ran out of things to say, Albert had asked if she might be interested in some of Regina’s dresses, particularly since they were roughly around the same size. Regina had recently gone on a shopping spree in Boston and there were dresses she had not even worn. Hayley had politely declined the kind offer, but Albert had insisted she come upstairs and take a look anyway. Hayley had dragged her heels as hard as she could, but Albert wouldn’t take no for an answer, and so finally, realizing it would be easier just to pretend she might accept one, she had followed Albert up the creaky steps of their weathered albeit sprawling five-bedroom house to the master bedroom.
Albert struggled to sift through the rack of garments, finally yanking out a glittery number that looked like it belonged in a flapper sketch from the 1970s in an old Carol Burnett Show, but she refrained from critiquing it and just said to Albert, “It’s lovely, but I’m afraid it’s just not my style.”
Albert stuffed it back into the closet and kept searching for the right outfit for Hayley.
“Really, Albert, this is totally unnecessary. At home I already have a closet full of clothes I’ve hardly worn. I was thinking of doing some wardrobe purging myself one of these days.”
Albert finally got the hint and stepped out of the closet and nodded solemnly. Hayley couldn’t help but notice his whole body was slumped over, like a hopelessly defeated, broken man. She felt so sorry for him.
“Are you sure you don’t want some tea?” he asked.
“No, thank you, Albert,” Hayley said. “Again, I am so sorry about everything. You and Regina seemed very happy.”
He didn’t want her to leave. She knew Albert had loved Regina deeply and was now lonely and lost without her. And she decided in that moment that despite her burning curiosity, she was not going to ask him about Julio Garcia. She was about to say her goodbye and quietly slip out when Albert, almost as if reading her mind, broached the subject himself.
“I’ll miss her every day . . . But it’s not like our marriage was perfect.”
“Few marriages are,” Hayley remarked with a wry smile.
Albert grinned. “No, I suppose not.”
“I’m sure you remember my first husband, Danny. Now that marriage was about as far from perfect as you could get.”
Albert chuckled and then caught himself. “Excuse me, Hayley, I didn’t mean to make light of your relationship. . .”
“No, when I think back to all I put up with, it makes me laugh, but he gave me two great kids, so there was definitely an upside.”
“Was he faithful?”
Hayley was surprised by the question. It was almost as if Albert wanted to open up and discuss his own marriage troubles. She thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. “You know, I’m not really sure. I thought he was, but by the end we were barely speaking, so who knows what he might have been up to? He was what you’d call a ladies’ man . . .”
“Well, I never was, but that wouldn’t surprise anybody. I’m more Mr. Magoo than Captain America.”
Hayley cracked a smile. “I think you’re a wonderful man, Albert, and I’m sure Regina did too.”
“Oh, yes, I know Regina loved me, but it was more like how a little girl adores her cocker spaniel, which makes sense because she always had me fetching things.”
Hayley laughed. Albert, if nothing else, had a charming sense of humor.
“But I often thought my loyalty and devotion to her just wasn’t enough . . . I believe she had certain needs I just could not satisfy . . .” He seemed to be talking more to himself than to Hayley, and suddenly he snapped out of his own thoughts and raised his eyes to meet Hayley’s. “I’m sorry, this is probably the last thing you came here to listen to . . .”
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Hayley knew her opportunity was right in front of her so she seized it. “Do you think Regina was having an affair?”
Albert scratched his chin and thought about it before nodding slightly. “I certainly had my suspicions. I caught her giggling and whispering to someone on the phone late at night once, and when she hung up and saw that I was awake, she told me it was her sister Betty in Philadelphia. But then the next day, Betty called and I answered and she mentioned that she hadn’t talked to Regina in over a week. That was a big red flag. And I also had this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that wouldn’t go away, but of course I didn’t say anything.”
“Why not?”
“In a way, I didn’t want to know the truth. I was willing to turn a blind eye because if it did all come out into the open, I was afraid I might lose her.”
Hayley walked over and gave Albert a hug.
He seemed grateful because he wrapped his short arms around her and squeezed so tightly, she could barely breathe.
He sniffed a few times before finally pulling away and wiping his nose with his hand.
She knew she had to know one more thing before she left. “Albert, do you have any idea who Regina might have been seeing? Was it someone local?”
Albert shook his head. “No, and I don’t care. What does it matter at this point anyway? She’s gone.”
Hayley was not about to mention the name Julio Garcia at this point. If Albert didn’t want to know, then she was not going to be the one to tell him. She turned to leave, but Albert stopped her.
“I will tell you this, I think it was over by the time of the accident.”
“Accident?”
“The bees.”
“Oh, yes.”
Albert was firmly in the camp that believed Regina’s death was not a homicide. Hayley was most definitely not. She turned back around to face Albert.
“What makes you think that?”
“Because the day before, she kept talking about how she wanted us to go on a trip, take a second honeymoon, maybe a cruise or something . . . it sounded like she wanted to try and rekindle our romance, which gave me high hopes that whatever she was doing behind my back was finished.”
“I see,” Hayley said, curious to hear more.
“I don’t know if you know this, but over the last few years I’ve made a few bad business investments, and I’ve lost a lot of money . . . A lot of money . . .”
“No, Albert, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“Regina never wanted for anything . . . until recently. It’s been a struggle for both of us. It nearly killed me, but I had to tell her money was too tight for us to take a trip, but she told me not to worry about it. She said she’d pay for everything, although I have no clue how—she was as broke as me. At first I figured she was just going to charge the whole thing to her one credit card that hadn’t been canceled yet and we’d worry about it later. But then she mentioned she was about to come into some money but remained vague about the details and didn’t want to talk about it. I was just happy she wanted to spend time with me so I didn’t press her. Sadly she never got around to booking anything . . .” He sniffed again, and then before he got too emotional, cleared his throat and changed the subject. “Are you sure you don’t want to take at least one dress with you, Hayley?”
“Thank you, Albert, I’m sure.”
“Well, if you don’t want any of Regina’s clothes, how about some perfume?”
She knew what he was doing. He was making up excuses for her to stay because he didn’t want to sit in this quiet house all by himself without the wife he had loved so much.
“Honestly, Albert, I don’t need anything . . .”
But he was already dashing to the bathroom, perusing a few perfume bottles, picking one up and holding it out to Hayley. “She loved this one. Lavender Extreme by Tom Ford. She ordered it from Bergdorf Goodman and it just came the other day. It’s never been used.”
“I’m not a perfume kind of gal,” Hayley said.
Albert was already on to the next beauty product on the bathroom countertop. He held up a bottle. “She wore this lotion every day. Slathered it all over herself. She bought it in bulk from Julio. No wonder she maxed out all her credit cards, buying so many dresses and beauty products.”
This suddenly got Hayley’s attention. “Julio Garcia?”
“Yeah, he sells all kinds of face creams, hand creams, body lotions, whatever a woman needs, but this stuff here, Regina was obsessed with it.” He popped the top open and took a big whiff. “It smells real nice. Here, see for yourself, maybe you’d like a bottle or two to take with you, I’ve got about a half dozen she never got around to using . . .”
Albert bounded over to Hayley and shoved the open bottle right up underneath her nose. She couldn’t help but inhale the fragrance, which was admittedly quite nice, but had an overpowering scent of . . .
“Honey . . .”
“Yes, it’s pretty strong,” Albert replied, nodding. “But you know what, it reminds me of her, and sometimes I’ll open a bottle and take in the aroma and it’s as if she’s still here in the house.”
Hayley studied the bottle and then arched an eyebrow. “That’s odd.”
“What?” Albert asked.
“Well, I was just reading the list of ingredients and I don’t see honey extract.”
“It has to be a misprint. All I smell is honey.”
“Me too,” Hayley said, reading through the list again. And then she gasped as if she had just been smacked in the head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing . . . It’s just that . . .”
It had finally come to her.
How Julio Garcia had managed to kill Regina Knoxville without physically being in her presence at the time.
He had sold her his personal body lotion, which she loved so much and wore every day. What if he added one extra special ingredient to the bottle? Honey extract. And a ton of it. He knew Regina went blueberry picking in the park every Saturday. She probably told him the exact location where she liked to go. He was also probably aware that she was allergic to bees! What if he donned some gloves and a face net and moved the beehive close to the blueberry patch where he knew Regina would be? The bees would naturally be drawn to the honey slathered all over Regina’s body. She would have panicked, the bees would have stung her, and after a severe reaction, she would have collapsed and died with no one around to save her!
It was the perfect murder.
Almost.