Chapter 25
Dear Sophie,
I was appalled when I washed a glass potluck casserole dish and found the person had etched her name into the bottom with a fancy script. It said, “Do not steal. This belongs to Sara Murgatroid.” Is this the appropriate way to mark a dish?
Blown Away in Surprise, New York
Dear Blown Away,
It sounds to me like Sara Murgatroid has lost a lot of her dishes in the past. Personally, I think it’s far easier and certainly more friendly to simply stick an address label on the bottom.
Sophie
Lisa moaned. “We can’t talk about anything else. You can imagine the atmosphere. First Gage and now Hollis? It’s insane. Everyone is whispering theories.”
“Any possibility that there’s a connection between the two deaths?” I asked.
Lisa looked around and motioned me out to the porch, saying in a loud voice, “I really need to get back to the office.”
I followed her onto the porch.
She gazed out over the backyard. “Something was wrong. I’m not sure what it was, but right before Gage died it was as if a cloud of gloom descended on the office. The thing is, I don’t have anything concrete. No letters or visits from suspicious people, nothing like that. Just a feeling in the air.”
She rambled on about how much she loved working for Hollis and what a great sense of humor he’d had. I nodded and smiled appropriately, but I wasn’t really listening anymore.
“Lisa,” I interrupted, “do you think there could have been a problem between the partners?”
She shook her head. “I never heard a cross word between them. They were consummate professionals. Gentlemen. I’m sure you know what I mean. But Gage’s death was so unexpected. Just between us, and I don’t mean this in a cruel way, if Hollis had had too much to drink and had fallen into the river, I would have said, ‘Well, that’s Hollis.’ He did things in a big way. But Gage wasn’t the type. I guess it could happen to anybody. I’ve been known to have a drink or two too many myself.”
“What about clients? Was there anyone who was angry with Hollis?”
“Clients aren’t always happy with the outcomes of their cases, but I don’t know of anyone who had it in for Hollis. I didn’t hear anyone threaten him or anything.” She gazed at me intently. “These are the same things that the cop asked me.”
Must have been Wolf asking questions. “Someone had it in for Hollis.”
She looked around and whispered, “You didn’t hear it from me, but Cindy isn’t always the angel she seems.”
Lisa hurried down the stairs and out to the gate. Only then did she stop to look back at me. She didn’t wave. She closed the gate, and a few seconds later I heard an engine start.
What did that mean? We all had our moments, of course. And the divorce had been ugly. Maybe that was what she had in mind. She had probably overheard Hollis’s side of some angry discussions. Or maybe when Cindy called Hollis’s office she had been less than congenial to Lisa. Funny how things had shifted in Cindy’s direction.
Instead of going back inside the Haberman house, I left through the gate and walked along the alley to the street. No matter who had murdered Hollis, it was a good bet he or she had arrived and left this way. I gazed around, looking for anything out of place. Wolf would have collected anything suspicious, so I didn’t expect to find much, but even eagle-eyed cops could miss something. The trouble was that even if Cindy, Kelsey, or Angus had dropped an item, it would be meaningless. All three of them had legitimate reasons for being in the alley behind the house.
I walked a few blocks to Alex’s law firm. His assistant waved me into his office. Alex studied something on his computer. He held a Tupperware bowl in one hand. The other hand held a fork poised over it.
“I’m interrupting your lunch.”
“I’m always happy to see you.” He set the bowl down and came around his desk for a quick kiss. “Are you bringing me good news about Kelsey?”
“I have a question.” I peered into the Tupperware bowl. “Is that chicken salad? Did you make it yourself?”
“I won’t take offense at your implication that I’m not capable of cooking for myself. My assistant had some kind of party with girlfriends and brought me the leftovers for lunch.”
“I wasn’t implying that you can’t cook. I just see you barbecuing, not cutting up pretty grapes and little chunks of chicken. That was very nice of her. Looks good.”
“I presume that wasn’t the question you had in mind?”
I shot him an annoyed look. “Do law firms carry insurance on the lawyers?”
“Some of them do. It’s called key person insurance. A lot of companies carry it. It’s not just for lawyers. The idea is to cover the firm in case a prime moneymaker dies.”
“Really? I thought that was a long shot. So Parker might have lucked into insurance proceeds for the deaths of Gage and Hollis?”
“I don’t know if they had key person insurance.” He paused and grinned at me. “But it might be interesting to find out.”
“Trula said Parker was thinking of asking you to join the firm.”
“He might. We’re having a little meeting over drinks tonight.”
I froze. Would Alex be the next to die? “And?”
“If he makes an offer, I’ll probably turn him down. Frankly, I’m happy doing my own thing. There are times when I wish I had a team of paralegals to help me, but mostly I’m happy with my professional life the way things are.”
Watching his response carefully, I added, “And you don’t know what’s going on over there?”
He showed no emotion whatsoever. Very quietly he said, “There’s that, too.”
“I’m glad, but do you think you could ask about key person insurance during your meeting?”
“Sneak it into the conversation? Sure.”
“It’s beginning to look like Cindy might be behind Hollis’s death, but I still can’t help wondering about Parker.”
His eyes narrowed. “Other than an insurance motive, do you have any leads? Any reason to think Parker was involved with the deaths?”
“No,” I said glumly.
“Any gossip about Angus’s death yet?”
“You’re worried that Kelsey will be blamed?”
“Sure I am. Chances are that Angus’s death was completely unrelated to Hollis’s demise, but any reasonable person would have to question it. Not only because they were murdered so close together in time, but because Angus worked for Hollis.”
“There’s a good possibility that Kelsey was giving blood when Angus was killed. The time frame between seeing him alive and finding him dead is fairly narrow. I’ve asked Wolf to find out if Kelsey gave blood like she said she would.”
Alex tilted his head and glared at me. “Gee, thanks.”
“What’s wrong?”
“What if she wasn’t giving blood just then? And what was she doing running around giving blood when her husband just died and she’s under suspicion for his murder?” He looked away and muttered, “Who does that?”
A sigh shuddered out of me. “The not-so-ugly stepmother of a child who was injured and has an exceedingly rare blood type that she shares with him but not with his father.”
His gaze whipped back to me. “What?”
“She gave blood for Gavin, who it turns out is not Hollis’s biological kid.”
He very slowly massaged a spot over his left eyebrow and a grin grew on his face. “Does Gavin know this?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Poor kid. So who is the dad?”
“Gavin is about fourteen. I guess you’d have to ask Cindy.”
“Whoa.”
I could almost see the cogs turning in Alex’s brain. “Let me guess. If they indict Kelsey, then you’ll throw this news in their faces to cast doubt in the minds of the jury?”
“Maybe. That’s a whopper of a tidbit. Cindy is always so soft-spoken and quiet. I never imagined she could have a wild side.”
“Before you get too excited, Jay Charles mentioned that she might have been inseminated. Could be that Hollis couldn’t have children.”
He grimaced. “Good point. I should not jump to conclusions.” He grinned again. “But this does have potential.”
When I left Alex’s office, he had forgotten all about the remaining chicken salad. I stopped in the doorway to look back at him. He sat at his desk, staring at the chair I had occupied and tapping his right forefinger on the desktop.
I strolled back and spent a quiet evening at home. But Hollis and Angus were always in my thoughts.
* * *
Just before two in the morning, Mochie woke me by jumping over me. He sprang from my bed to the floor. I groaned and turned over. My eyes closed, I became aware of a faint tapping sound, not unlike a dripping faucet. I wasn’t one for sleeping with a pillow over my head to block out sounds and lights. Grumpily, I shuffled into the bathroom. The faucets weren’t dripping and the pinging continued.
I returned to the hallway and looked around. Where had Mochie gone? He knew where that annoying noise was coming from. The old stairs creaked under my feet as I walked down to the first floor. Yawning, I stumbled into the kitchen and checked the sink. Nothing dripping there. I peered out the window. Everything seemed quiet out on the street.
The sound stopped and Mochie mewed. I followed his voice into the sunroom. A dark figure stood at the door looking in.