“Sophie’s here,” I called to Mom. I opened the door. Mom was right behind me and folded Sophie into a warm hug. Sophie’s eyes were red from crying and she hadn’t taken time to apply any makeup.
Charlene patted her aunt on the back.
“Oh, Flora, Darcy, I’ve just come from your sheriff’s office. They think the preliminary tests show that was Andrea out at Mrs. Harris’s place. I just knew it was, ever since you called Charlene yesterday, Darcy.”
She blew her nose on a wadded up tissue she carried.
“Come into the kitchen, both of you,” Mom said. “Charlene, I am so glad you came with Sophie.”
Sophie sniffled. “She has been a real help.”
I led them toward the warmth of the kitchen. “Please come in and sit down. Would you both like some coffee? Have you had breakfast?”
Sophie shook her head. “I couldn’t eat anything, but a cup of coffee would be nice. I’ve brought something I think everybody should know about.”
“I had a roll earlier,” Charlene said, “but thanks.”
Sophie carried a manila folder under her arm that I had not noticed until we stepped into the brightly lit kitchen. She collapsed into the chair vacated by Jackson Conner and Charlene sat next to her. Sophie handed me the folder.
Sophie talked while I pulled some documents from the folder.
“Andrea brought these papers to me about a year before she and Gary were married. I’m not even sure if she knew him then. I had already made a will leaving everything I own to her in the event of my death. She said she was going to make one just like it, giving all her property to me, since the two of us were the only ones left in our immediate family. But if she ever made such a will I never saw it and apparently neither did anybody else. Some of that stuff she inherited from her grandmother and some came in a divorce settlement from Tom. Then some she acquired when she worked in New York, before marrying Tom, but I actually can’t find out what happened to all those assets.”
The pages in the folder detailed stocks, bonds, annuities, and a New York bank account. These had been in Andrea’s name only; not Andrea’s and Tom’s, and not in Andrea’s and Gary’s. Andrea Worth had been a wealthy woman.
I looked up from scanning the pages. “So you don’t have any idea what happened to all these assets?”
Sophie shook her head. “Not those, no. Of course, I do know that the Inglenook is still in Andrea’s name. It isn’t listed there because her grandmother stipulated it would always remain in the direct lineage of her family.”
“All I can think of to say is Wow,” I whispered. “Andrea left all that to come to Ventris County and live with Gary? It must have been love.”
Sophie lifted her shoulders. “Or something like that.”
Mom read the pages over my shoulder. “This falls right in line with the things we were talking about earlier, doesn’t it, Darcy?”
It did indeed, and provided a mighty powerful motive for Andrea’s husband to do away with her.
Suddenly Sophie put down her coffee mug. “I want to go and see the place where they found her—where they found my girl.”
“Now, Aunt Sophie, we’ve talked about that,” Charlene said in a pleading tone.
Mom’s voice was soft. “Oh now, Sophie, I don’t know what good it would do and it would just make you feel worse.”
Sophie pushed her hair back from her forehead and closed her eyes. “I don’t think I could possibly feel any worse. If you and Darcy would take us over to Pat Harris’s place, I’d really appreciate it. I don’t know if I could find the Harris house by myself, and I’d hate to walk in on poor Pat since I’m a stranger to her.”
There it was—a way for me to get off by myself this morning and do some investigating on my own. But what plausible reason could I give for not going with them?
“Mom, you go and show them the way. I think Charlene should go too as a support for Sophie. I’ve got to do a few things myself; I have never gotten a really good start on that book I’m supposed to be writing. This might be a good time to do that.”
None of this was a lie. It was all true. I just didn’t say that the few things I had to do involved going the back way to the Worth ranch if, by chance, Gary was at his construction company or otherwise occupied away from home.
My mother arched an eyebrow and looked at me. “It’s funny to me, Darcy, that you’d have an itch to work on that book just this minute. Do you have something up your sleeve?”
She really did know me well. “Mom, I’m just doing what you’ve always preached to me: ‘don’t put off ’til tomorrow what you can do today.’”
It was with a great sense of relief that I saw the three women climb into my mother’s Toyota and head down the road on their way to Pat Harris’s house.
The first phone call I made was to Grant. I got straight to the point. “So, have you arrested anyone yet for Andrea Worth’s murder?”
“Arrested who, Darcy?”
I was glad Grant couldn’t see me stomp my foot. This man could exasperate a stone statue. “Gary Worth comes to mind.”
Grant sighed. “First we need proof. I agree that a lot of circumstantial evidence points to Gary. But he has a pretty good alibi in the words of his night watchman and also the film from his surveillance camera. It may take a while, but I guarantee you, we’ll find who murdered Andrea Worth. We have some substantial leads. Let me tell you, Darcy, that the person who killed Andrea is probably feeling a lot of pressure right about now. He’s scared and desperate and such a person as that is mighty dangerous. So let me handle this. Okay?”
“Okay,” I mumbled.
As I hung up the phone, I came to one conclusion: the wheels of justice grind mighty slowly. I’d see if I could speed them up a bit.
My next call was to my cousin Zack Crowder. He drove a truck for Gary occasionally, he said. Surely he would know whether his boss was home. I sincerely hoped he wasn’t.