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“Did you know Ed had a son?”
I’m standing in the center of my soon-to-be new home. I scarcely notice the fact that the rough floor is now soft, springy carpet under my feet and there’s a faint fresh-paint smell from the neat magnolia coat on the walls. My mind is completely focused on the person on the other end of my phone, who is, from the noise I can hear in the background, distracted.
“Mindy!”
“Hmm? Oh, Cassie. Sorry.” I hear my friend’s voice drop as she addresses someone else, and then there’s a rustle as she holds the phone away from her mouth. I tap my foot irritably and wait for her to come back. “What were you saying?”
“I was saying,” I speak through clenched teeth and force myself to sound calmer than I feel. “That Edward Patterson had a son. Your husband. He had a son. Did you know about this?”
“Of course I knew.” Mindy’s voice is so light it’s almost as if I haven’t just given her the kind of news that shatters a person’s whole life. “David is a lovely man.”
“David is a lovely man!” I screech. “Since when have you even known he exists? I certainly didn’t.”
“Well, he and his father weren’t exactly close.” Mindy hesitates. “It all happened such a long time ago, before Ed and I got married. He was quite a bit older than me, you know, and it wasn’t like he’d been living like a monk all those years. He told me there had been a short-lived romance with a woman who lived several states away now, and that she’d had a child. A son.”
I can’t quite believe what I’m hearing. It was apparently common knowledge that there existed, somewhere in America, an heir to the Patterson fortune and I had no idea.
“Well, did you know this son is in town?” I ask, feeling certain that I know something my friend doesn’t. “He’s here, now.” I drop my voice to a whisper. “Buying into Serenity Suites.”
“Oh, how lovely!”
I blanch, then recover with an irritated sniff.
“Yes. I suppose he needs to reinvest the money he’s going to get from selling my street and making a bunch of people homeless.”
“You’re being dramatic,” Mindy says, in the tone of voice I’ve come to hate. “And you aren’t homeless. Where are you right now?”
I look around my future living room and feel a pinprick of irritation. Why is my friend always right?
“That’s not important.” I sound petulant and take a deep breath before continuing. “What matters is: Ed Patterson had a son and you never bothered to tell me.”
“I didn’t realize you cared so much.” I can hear a note that sounds suspiciously like laughter and am about to point out to my friend that nothing that’s happened here in the last few days has been remotely amusing, but before I can say a word, Mindy speaks again. “Cassie? Cassie, I have to go. There’s something here I need to deal with. I’ll talk to you later, ok? Say hi to David for me.”
“Mindy? Wait! Min-” She’s dropped the call and I stand with my phone pressed to my ear for a moment in shock before a knock at the door startles me out of my reverie. It comes again and before I have a chance to reply, the door opens and Joe strolls through it.
“Oh, good! You’re here.” He alters his course and keeps walking straight towards me. “And you aren’t busy.”
I glance at my phone, then drop it into my purse as I slide it securely onto my shoulder with a weary sigh.
“I guess not. How can I help you, Joe?”
“Actually, I’m the one who’s going to help you.” He waggles his eyebrows at me and I stare at him as he suddenly grows a little more serious. “I’m going to help you solve a murder.”
*
“ALRIGHT, ARE YOU GOING to tell me, or what?”
“Not here.”
Joe had decided that his intelligence - that’s the word he used intelligence like we’re a pair of cold-war spies engaged on a mission in enemy territory - is too important to share with me in my room. The walls have ears, Ms. Clifton, he’d said, as he led me through the door into my private courtyard. Even that hadn’t been private enough for him, and after a moment’s consideration he’d kept walking, urging me to keep pace with him until we’re standing in the middle of the gardens, empty but for a couple of workmen wrangling a hedge trimmer that whirs noisily in the background.
“Perfect.”
I’m assuming that’s what Joe says. It’s so noisy I can’t hear him, but I can be pretty adept at lipreading when I want to be. He says something else, a jumble of words I can’t make out, and I regret that my lipreading skills aren’t what they used to be.
“What?” I turn to glare at the gardeners. “It’s noisy!”
“Exactly.” Joe leans closer to me and now I can just about hear his gravelly whisper. “Good cover.”
“There are people everywhere!” I say, looking wistfully back towards the building. “At least my room was empty.”
Joe shakes his head.
“This is better.” He holds my gaze and I see a gleam of excitement in those grey eyes that makes him look younger than I first thought him. He’s probably not that much older than me. And I get the feeling he might even have been handsome, once upon a time...
“Cassie!”
His bark makes me jump and I flush, guiltily.
“Sorry.” I glance over my shoulder, reassuring myself that the two gardeners are engaged in their work and not watching us. Joe’s paranoia is contagious and I lean a little closer until we’re only inches apart. “What did you want to tell me about?”
“I’ve found our killer.” He looks so proud of himself that it takes me a minute to latch onto what in his words made me uncomfortable.
“Our killer?” I arch an eyebrow.
“Oh, very well. The killer.” Joe rolls his eyes. “I’ve been working on a little investigation, and now I think I’ve got it all sussed out. The trouble is...” He winces. “I don’t exactly have any proof. But that’s where you come in.”
“Me?” My incessant repetition is annoying even me and I shake it off. “What do you mean? I can’t help you.” I’m too busy helping the sheriff.
“What if I told you the killer was right here, under this roof?”
A cold shiver works its way up my spine and I try not to show him how unnerved I feel. I’m not very good at hiding my curiosity for long.
“Who?”
“David Patterson.” Joe rolls back on his heels, folding his arms across his front and looking at me expectantly for my reaction. “Ask me why.”
“Why?” I parrot, dumbly.
“Money.” Joe is nodding now, as if unspooling the mystery here, to me, only makes it clearer to him. “He’s Ed Patterson’s natural son, ain’t he? But when the Ebeneezer Scrooge of Patterson popped his clogs his fortune would automatically go to the wife, unless she’s somehow magically taken out of the way.” Joe drops his voice to a whisper I can barely hear. “Or pushed out of the way.”
I suck in a breath. I can see the whole thing now, and my gaze travels past Joe’s head to the empty balconies that overlook the garden. My mind overlays them with a memory of the mansion and I picture Jessica arguing with somebody. You can’t be here. Wasn’t that exactly what she’d said to David Patterson when he arrived at the house before the party? I was there, too. I saw that interaction. He was already acting like the house was his and she was just a temporary - and very unwelcome - guest. I can imagine exactly how angry Jessica would have been about him barging into her room in the middle of the party.
“Well?” Joe’s still waiting for my reaction and I turn back to look at him, nodding slightly.
“I think you might be right.” I hesitate. “But not about the motive. The bulk of Ed’s business investments went directly to his son anyway. Jessica only got some ready cash.” I frown. “But she was taking her sweet time about vacating the house. I saw them argue about it.” I recall the incident at Annabelle’s. Maybe he discovered who was stealing the family heirlooms and decided to challenge Jessica about it!
Joe smiles.
“Then it looks like we’ve just solved a murder.”