CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 

Soo Jin's eyes widened. "Betty? Where's Lauren?" She got up as if to head to find her, but I waved her to sit back down.

"Go get your partner in crime," I said to the girl.

As she dashed out of the room, Soo Jin stood up. "It's not safe!"

I shook my head and set the book down on the sideboard behind me. "It's perfectly safe."

"But the killer…" Stacey started.

"Is in this room. So I'm not worried."

Lauren and Betty joined us and sat down, just as Miriam and Ned appeared with coffee. I asked them to take their seats.

"You really had me going." I started to pace but made eye contact with no one in particular. "I was so sure about everything. Thought I knew what was going on. But I didn't."

Soo Jin pressed, "Cut to the chase, please."

I ignored her. "This whole time I was wrapped up in that 'Eight Little Girl Scouts' poem. But this wasn't about that at all. That was something to throw us off track." I picked up the book and opened it. One corner was torn out. Pulling the corner from my pocket, I was able to repair it.

"What's that?" Stacey asked.

"It's The Canterbury Tales. And it seems to be the most popular book in the house. I've found it connected to a few of the victims and the killer. This wasn't about the poem or the murder mystery game. This was about punishment."

"What are you talking about?" Soo Jin asked.

I ignored her question and continued. "I hated having to read this book in college. But sometimes the books you dislike stick with you more than the books you like. And there was one theme that I never forgot. The theme that ran through the whole book. About the seven deadly sins."

I held up my hand and ticked them off. "Gluttony, greed, lust, envy, sloth, pride, and Wrath. That's me. Wrath." I kind of liked how I'd been plugged into this. I didn't tell them that.

"I don't understand," Juliette said.

"The victims here were killed for committing one of the seven deadly sins. Enos was an overweight slob who was killed while eating. He's gluttony. Taylor's obsession at being the first and best—which was why she was killed with a trophy and for stealing another woman's husband, was about greed."

"Thad was lust because he was having an affair with Taylor!" Soo Jin cried out.

"What about envy?" Ava asked.

I nodded. "Wren was envy. She envied Taylor—which was why she was murdered wearing the dead woman's dress."

"Dennis was lazy—that's why sloth!" Stacey added.

Everyone seemed pleased that they were connecting pieces of the puzzle. In a weird way, we were playing a game. Only this one had real dead bodies.

Inez frowned. "But Violet and Caroline were both targets, and there's only one left—pride."

I nodded. "We were right in thinking that one of the guests was the killer and that only seven were the real targets. Pride was the last sin. The remaining punishment. Which meant that the other attempt was a red herring."

I turned to face Kevin the Killer. "Isn't that right, Violet?"

A gasp of shock went around the table, but the old woman was beaming from ear to ear next to her shocked husband.

"You got it! Caroline was pride—because she was so arrogant and thought nobody else was as good as she was."

"You never intended to kill me," I asked, "did you?"

"Oh no, dear! I'd hoped to match wits with you, and you did very well!"

Soo Jin's and everyone else's mouths dropped open. "Mrs. Kasinski is the killer?"

Violet and I nodded in sync. "That's right," I added.

Stacey jumped to her feet. "But why? Why kill these people?"

The old woman waved at her to sit back down. "I know this was a terrible imposition on your hospitality, and to make up for murdering your donors, I want you to know that I'm leaving everything to the Girl Scouts in my will."

Stacey and Juliette were stunned.

"I know the surface motives," I said. "But I don't know why you did it. What made you decide to kill?"

Violet took a sip of tea then slowly and gingerly got to her feet. "I never wanted to get married early and live out my years on a hog farm. I wanted to have an exciting life filled with adventure and danger. Like you! But my parents never liked that idea. So two weeks after graduating from high school, I did what they wanted, married Arthur, and spent my entire life resenting it."

"What?" Arthur gasped.

"Arthur, please shut up," Violet said gently. When he did, she continued. "As the years went on and I slopped hogs, balanced ledgers, attended Pork Producer meetings, and ruled over the Porkettes, I'm sad to say I became angrier and angrier at what I'd lost."

"But I…" her husband started.

"Arthur, I don't want to have to tell you again. Interrupting others is rude. Don't make me stab you with this butter knife."

Arthur slid his chair and himself out of her reach but said nothing.

She turned a beaming face back to the rest of us. "When I heard about you in the papers, being exposed by that horrid vice president, I felt sorry for you. As a major contributor to your father's campaigns, I recognized you. You look just like your grandmother, Adelaide Wrath, by the way."

"Um…thank you?" It kind of seemed like a compliment that she went on this killing spree to impress me.

"That's what started the whole ball rolling," Violet continued. "My father was a judge. And a good one. I was too old to become a spy, but I could become a judge."

"You sentenced all these people and carried out those sentences!" Soo Jin chastised.

The girls nodded approvingly…to Violet. I'd have to work on that.

"Yes. I did. I know it was wrong, but for once in my life, I was doing something exciting. Something no one thought I was capable of."

"Why didn't you kill Mr. Kasinski?" Betty raised her hand. She was asking out of curiosity, which seemed a tad disturbing.

"That's an excellent question, young lady!" Violet clapped her hands together. "You girls are amazing. I hope you do what you want to do when you grow up and don't follow my path."

"Hey!" Arthur said weakly as he scooted a few more inches away.

"I didn't kill my husband because I wanted him to see what I was capable of." She cocked her head to one side. "Although I did toy with it."

Her husband turned an alarming shade of red.

Violet ignored him. "I grew up running around this island. My aunt once owned it. I know every inch. Including where the secret passages are." She winked at the girls. "So it was easy for me to slip in and out of rooms."

"There are secret passages?" Juliette's jaw dropped.

I interrupted to briefly explain before giving Violet the floor once again.

"It was my idea," she continued, "to have the Mystery Night here on this island. I've known the Deivers for years, and Audrey promised to pretend it was her idea, just for fun. And then I made my guest list. Dennis's parents were always buying tickets to events they couldn't attend. I'd convinced them to make their lazy son go in their stead.

"When I ran into Taylor at an event, I appealed to her Girl Scout background. She couldn't wait to have a roomful of people to lord her achievements over. It was all too easy. And when I ran into Caroline, I just mentioned that this would be a good opportunity to show Taylor how successful she'd become."

"How did you get the Gables on board?" Stacey asked. "I wasn't sure they were going to come."

Violet laughed sweetly. "I knew about Thad and Taylor's affair—everyone did. I once again ran into Wren at an event and suggested that this might offer a romantic getaway with her husband. I didn't mention that Taylor would be there." She started to stare off into the distance. "I'll admit—that felt a bit mean."

"What about Enos?" I nudged. She was on a roll, and I didn't want to interrupt things by saying it was more than a bit mean to invite people here and then kill them off one by one. If there's anything I'd learned from Disney movies—you have to keep the villain monologuing.

She turned to face me, wearing a mask of confusion. "Enos?" Then her eyes focused. "Oh! Him! That young man was awful. He created one silly invention then did nothing after that. He didn't have to work as hard as Arthur and I did for our wealth. He could've changed the world with his fortunes, but he didn't. He just got fat and became bored. I sent him an invite, hoping he'd come just for the novelty of it, and he did."

"How did you kill him?" I asked. "Miriam told me we were supposed to have lasagna instead of fish, but the menu changed."

Stacey blanched. "Mrs. Kasinski asked if we could substitute fish for lunch. I had no idea that was so she could poison it."

Violet nodded. "Sleight of hand, my dear. As I had reached across him to get the salt, I dropped the powder onto his fish. He might have tasted it in pasta, but the fish would disguise it." She looked at me for approval. I wasn't sure what to think about that.

"And slipping away to kill Taylor?" Soo Jin asked.

"That was easy. You were all so engrossed in finding that rabbit that you didn't notice I'd been gone."

"You used the secret passage through the attic to kill Thad," I added.

"Yes! Good job! The stairs are so hard on my knees these days, but yes, that's how I did it. As for Caroline, I waited for Arthur to fall asleep and slipped next door. I'd hidden the equipment in her closet earlier that day. Since you'd tied her to a chair, it was so easy to electrocute her."

"What about Wren?" I asked quickly, wishing I could forget that I'd handed Caroline over to her killer so easily.

She looked confused. "What about her, dear?"

"Thad's wife, Wren? You dressed her in Taylor's clothes and pushed her down the stairs."

The old lady chuckled softly. "Oh, right. I did do that. But I didn't dress her. It was easy to convince her to try it on. I just told her that she'd look much better in it than Taylor did."

I thought about this. "Weren't you in the library with Arthur?"

She nodded. "He fell asleep. Like he always does. I hurried down the stairs as Wren fell. Granted, with these knees it took a little longer than I'd hoped, but no one noticed a thing."

Soo Jin cleared her throat. "And Dennis?"

Violet grinned widely. "It was a special poison disbursed through aerosol. I made it myself. Tested it on rats in the barn. There are three kinds of toxins in it—I can't remember the exact formula. My first invention! Isn't that grand?"

"How did you do the branch?" Betty asked.

Violet winked at the girl. "You girls are so smart! I really wish I could be a leader. There's a lot I could teach you!"

Yeah, like how to kill a houseful of people. That was the kind of leadership we didn't need.

"She ran a wire from the porch to the tree," Lauren nodded matter-of-factly. "My guess is the branch was cut almost all the way."

"That's right!" Violet clapped her hands.

"But you were under the branch when it broke." Inez tilted her head to one side.

"I rigged it so that one tug would be enough to force the branch to break the rest of the way," our killer said. "That was the hardest one because I had to time it just right to get close to the tree before the branch dropped. I had to practice on the farm for about three months until I got it right," She turned to her husband. "Remember, Arthur, when you complained about all those branches being down in the south field?"

Arthur gulped loudly.

His wife beamed at us, as if waiting for applause. In her mind, she'd pulled off the crime of the century. Actually, I had to agree with that. Violet Kasinski was diabolical. She would've made an amazing spy. Too bad she didn't join the CIA before launching a geriatric killing spree at my Girl Scout event.

The woman started to frown. She looked sad.

"I can't believe you managed all that." I gushed a little. "I know career spies who couldn't have pulled that off."

That seemed to be what she wanted to hear, and she beamed, nudging Arthur as if to show him what she was made of. Arthur was looking a little green around the gills, and I wondered if she had poisoned him so he would die after her fiendish diatribe.

"I'm sorry," I said after a moment. "But I'll have to ask you to sit down and stay there until we can get you to the authorities."

She did. "I'm so excited that I was able to do it! I really wanted to impress you! When Stacey mentioned that you'd be part of the show, I thought this was a great opportunity!"

Stacey went pale. "You're right. You did ask me if Merry was coming. I totally forgot."

I was worried that the younger woman would have a stroke after finding out she'd been manipulated into getting these victims here. I felt badly for her. I made a mental note to make a large donation to the camp program when this was all over.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't flattered. No one had ever killed anyone to impress me before. Well, that wasn't totally true. Once in Peru, a Paraguayan spy (a short-order cook who doubled as the prime minister's private secretary) took out a rabid llama that was racing toward me. I'm not sure that was the same thing.

Still, I wasn't sure Violet had thought this through. Now that she was a murderer, did she think she'd just go home?

"But you're going to prison," I said. "You have lost your freedom. You'll never be able to go anywhere you want or do what you want to do."

The woman smiled warmly. "I'm already in a prison, dear. But it's nice of you to worry about me."

"Do you mean your marriage? Or living on the farm?" I asked. "Because you won't be going back there."

Violet shook her head. "The farm has been my prison since I was seventeen. I'm not going to comment on my marriage because it makes me too upset and want to kill Arthur here."

Arthur fainted.

"But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm referring to my disease. I have Alzheimer's."

For a moment I wondered if that would get her off by reason of insanity.

Violet sighed. "I'll probably be sent to a correctional facility that has memory care. Soon, I won't even know that this happened. I won't know who I am or where I am. That's the saddest part."

For a moment, I felt a wave of sympathy for the woman. She grew up in a different time. I had freedoms she couldn't even imagine. If I'd married right out of high school and stayed in Iowa, never travelled or got an education, would I have done the same thing? Okay, the answer to that is no. I wouldn't have killed six people to make a point. Two, yes. Three…maybe. But six? That was overkill in my book.

I thought about what she'd said. Rex and I had met after my career was over. I had something for myself before sharing it with someone else. Sure, we'd only been married a couple of months, but we'd been together a few years.

I knew who I was, or at least, I thought I did, before I met him. It seemed unfathomable to share a life with someone before seeing what I could do. When she thought she'd lived her whole life in a prison, I knew she meant her marriage at an early age.

But that didn't make killing all these people right. It didn't matter how arrogant or awful they were, and unless they were Hitler or Stalin (and in some cases, Bernie Madoff), they couldn't be judged and sentenced to death by her. Thad and Taylor were dreadful. Caroline was arrogant. Wren was weak. Enos devoured one empty experience after another. Dennis, on the other hand, did absolutely nothing.

That did not give Violet the right to sentence them to death. People changed. And they should've had the opportunity to do that. Even if they never did.

It opened my eyes to my future. I loved working with the girls. I loved making a life with Rex. But maybe it was time to look at doing more. Maybe it was time to find a job or something else that would make my life move forward.

And maybe the first step was to find out once and for all if Lana was really here, tormenting me on the edges of my life. Whether she was really writing a book about me, or involved in local murders, it was time to find her and deal with her once and for all.