Plaster and Poison Read online

  Melissa quacked in his ear.

  “Yes, of course,” Derek said patiently. “Listen. I’m at Clovercroft. My stepsister Beatrice works in the office out here. Yes, I’m sure you know that.” He rolled his eyes again. “Thank you, Melissa. To continue, then. Bea didn’t come home last night. Her car is in the lot and her phone is ringing inside the office, but she’s not here. Or if she is, she’s not answering the door. I can break a window or take the lock off the door and get in that way, but I thought you might prefer to come out with a key.”

  Melissa quacked again. Derek glanced at his watch. “Fine. We’ll be here.” He ended the call and tucked the phone back in its pouch. “She’s on her way. Or will be, once she gets moving. Her makeup is already laid, so it shouldn’t take her more than a half hour or so.”

  Cora nodded.

  We spent the next thirty minutes looking around the construction site. Derek got in the truck, which had four-wheel drive, and went bumping across the frozen ground, on the lookout for any sign of life or—although he didn’t say it—foul play. I checked out the row of buildings as best I could. The commercial spaces were all locked, and there was no sign of life inside any of them. But I tried all the doors and peeked through all accessible windows, seeing nothing but construction debris and trash. Or rubbish, as they say in Maine. Cora, meanwhile, was on the phone. She called Dr. Ben to update him on the search, and then she called her other daughter, Alice, to tell her Beatrice was missing and to ask if she had spoken to Bea recently. I listened to Cora’s half of the conversation with half an ear while I peered through windows and peeked into corners.

  “You haven’t? Not since the weekend? Well, what did she say? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. No, I’m afraid not. Not a word. She just didn’t come home last night. Yes, I know that, honey. But her car is still parked outside the place where she works, and her phone is ringing inside the building, the only problem is that she’s not here. Or if she’s here, she’s not able to answer the door.”

  Her voice hitched a little on the last sentence, and I went over and patted her shoulder.

  “I would appreciate that,” Cora said into the phone. “You have a key? Thank you. Let me know if you find her. Or what Steve has to say when you talk to him.”

  She shut her phone off. “Alice hasn’t heard from her for several days. When they last spoke, Beatrice didn’t say anything about leaving Waterfield or going back to Boston. She said she hadn’t had any contact with Steve—as far as I know, too, she hasn’t—and she didn’t tell Alice that she’d met anyone else, either.”

  “It’d be very soon for her to get involved with someone else,” I agreed. “Unless she was doing it to show Steve that they were finished, but I didn’t get the impression that she was at that point yet.” Unless she had simply indulged in a one-night stand. She wouldn’t be the first unappreciated wife trying for some validation that way.

  Cora shook her head. “I think she just wanted him to come after her. To promise that things would be different, and actually make them so. She wasn’t interested in anyone else. She and Steve have been together for seven years. You don’t just throw something like that away in a couple of weeks.”

  I nodded. “So Alice is going to go to Bea’s place in Boston? And talk to Steve?”

  Cora nodded. “Just in case Beatrice is there. Just in case Steve came to Waterfield and got her, and she was so excited she forgot to call and tell me she was leaving.”

  Her soft, blue eyes were shadowed, so in spite of the firm tone, I don’t think she believed that Alice would find Beatrice and Steve snuggled up in bed together. She added, “And if she’s not there, Steve needs to know that she’s gone. They’re still married. He’s her next of kin.”

  “Unless he did something to her,” I said.

  Cora looked at me. I floundered on. “Um . . . he’s not the type to come after her with a shotgun, is he? If he can’t have her, no one can?”

  “I wouldn’t think so,” Cora said, “although I wouldn’t have thought anything could happen to her in our quiet, little town, either. I worried about her living in Boston—I worried about both my girls living in Boston—but maybe we’re no safer here.”

  She looked around, as if seeing the place for the first time. In the distance, the truck navigated the ruts of a staked-out parcel and stopped for a second, engine running, so Derek could peer into the half-finished skeleton of a house. After a few moments, he moved on.

  “Have you tried calling Steve?” I asked.

  Cora shook her head. “Don’t have his cell phone number. I tried calling the house, but there’s no answer there. So he’s either gone to work, or they’re both there, together, and they just don’t want to answer the phone. But Alice will figure it out.”

  I nodded, turning as another car engine approached through the trees. After a second, Melissa’s cream-colored Mercedes came into the parking lot and pulled to a stop next to Cora’s Saturn. Derek’s truck changed direction and started making its way back toward us. The Mercedes’ engine cut off, and Melissa got out.

  I had hoped that since it was so early—barely nine in the morning—Melissa might look less put together than usual. Having her show up in ratty sweats with her hair undone and her face naked might be too much to hope for, but couldn’t she have had the decency to be at least a little disheveled?

  She looked just as dewy fresh as always, of course. Hair perfectly groomed, sleek and shiny, cupping her elegant jaw, and with no hint of dark roots. She was dressed in cream slacks and a sapphire blue silk blouse under that same cashmere coat as yesterday. The stones in her earlobes were probably real diamonds, and another sparkled on her finger when she pulled the key chain out of her purse.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said to Cora, her voice sympathetic. “I have no idea what’s happened. I was out here yesterday morning and saw Beatrice then, and as far as I could tell, nothing was wrong with her. Should we wait for Derek before we open the door?” She glanced at the truck making tracks across the frozen ground, the tires spitting up little pieces of ice and dirt.

  “Please,” I said. Beatrice might be inside, in need of medical attention, in which case we needed Derek. Or, a little voice reminded me, Beatrice might be inside, dead, and if so, I’d definitely want Derek next to me when we made the discovery.

  “I saw her in the middle of the day yesterday,” Cora said. “She drove into town so we could have lunch together. We walked down to Main Street and met Avery and her mother on the way. And afterward she got back in the car to go back to work.”

  “And here’s her car,” I added.

  Melissa nodded. “Of course.”

  Derek pulled the truck to a stop and got out, and she turned to him. “Derek. I’m so sorry.”

  He nodded, face grim. “Got the key?”

  “Right here.” She lifted it. “We were waiting for you.”

  “I’m here now.” He headed for the door. “Let’s do it.”

  Melissa inserted the key in the door and turned it. I held my breath as Derek reached out and turned the knob. The door opened soundlessly, and I was grateful. The atmosphere at Clovercroft was creepy enough without doors opening with an eerie shriek. And it wasn’t just the knowledge that Bea was missing and might be inside. Whether it was the fact that I knew that this place was an old burial ground, hallowed to the Native Americans, or because there’s just something depressing about a construction zone where no one is constructing anything, I’m not sure, but the truth is, I was spooked. The sky was bright blue and the air was crisp, but the sun was hidden behind the bulk of dark pines, and they cast a shadow over the storefront where we were standing. I shivered.

  “Beatrice?” Derek stepped through the open door. “Are you here?”

  12

  “I think it’s time we call Wayne,” Derek said ten minutes later.

  We had ascertained that Beatrice was not in the office, alive or dead, and that there were no obvious clues to where she’d gone. Everything looked normal. There was no sign of a struggle or anything to indicate that she hadn’t left under her own steam, except for the fact that her cell phone was st
ill on the desk. And as it was half hidden under a stack of financial statements, things she must have been working on in the afternoon yesterday, it was conceivable she might have forgotten to take it with her when she left, quite possibly of her own volition.

  A locked door at the very back of the office led upstairs to what Melissa called the model home.

  “There are doors that can be locked on either end of the stairway,” Melissa explained, demonstrating. “This door down here would be locked from the office, while the one up there would be locked and bolted from the apartment. That way, if the owner of the storefront doesn’t need an attached apartment, he or she can rent it to someone else but not have to worry about the tenant getting into the office space. There’s a separate stairway to the apartment with an entrance from outside.”

  “And the tenant can lock the door upstairs and not worry about the landlord or anyone from the office or store coming upstairs.” I nodded. It was smart.

  “Exactly.” Melissa beamed at me, as if I were a slow student unexpectedly coming up with the right answer to a tricky question.

  “Can we look upstairs?” Cora asked.

  Melissa hesitated. “I’m afraid I don’t have the key to the apartment on me. I gave it to someone a few weeks . . . I mean, a few days ago, and I haven’t gotten it back yet.”

  I looked at her. She sounded like she was hiding something. “It wasn’t Steve, was it? ”

  “Who?” This time she sounded perfectly sincere, and sincerely baffled.

  “Never mind,” I said.

  “Steve is Beatrice’s husband,” Cora added.

  “Oh. No.” Melissa shook her head. “This wasn’t Steve. Just a . . . um . . . maintenance man. Someone from the crew at Devon Highlands. The apartment needed some upkeep.”

  She turned to Cora. “I’m sorry I can’t oblige you, Cora. If I can get the key back today, I’ll let you know, and you can come back out and look around all you want. Although Beatrice would have had no reason to go upstairs, you know. And she wouldn’t have had a key to get through the door up there, either, for that matter. But we can go to the top of the stairs, if you’d like, and I’ll show you that the door is locked and bolted on the other side.”

  She undid the bolt on the downstairs door. As the two of them headed up, Derek pulled out his phone. “I think it’s time we call Wayne.”

  “It hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet,” I pointed out. “Don’t you have to wait twenty-four hours before you can file a missing-person report? ”

  “Officially, maybe. But Wayne’s been relegated to traffic duty, so I’m sure he’d like something more exciting to do than waving cars around for old Mr. Mosley’s funeral.” He dialed. I waited while he connected with Wayne and relayed the information.

  “He’s on his way,” he said a minute later, tucking the phone in his pocket just as Cora and Melissa came back into the office. “Wayne,” he added, in explanation. “It shouldn’t take him more than fifteen minutes to get here. Anything upstairs?”

  Cora shook her head. “Just a locked door. We knocked, and there was no answer.”

  “There wouldn’t be,” Melissa added. “It’s unoccupied. Clovercroft isn’t zoned for occupation yet.”

  “I’ll talk to Wayne about getting the door open when he gets here. He’ll probably have a universal key, or something. Or a battering ram.” Derek turned to me. “Do you want to take the truck back to town, Avery? Your mom and Noel must be awake by now.”

  “I don’t know . . .” I said, glancing at Cora. And, I must admit, at Melissa. “Don’t you want me to stay? ”

  “Of course I want you to stay. I always want you to stay. But there’s nothing you can do here. And I know you’re eager to see your mom.”

  I nodded, reluctantly.

  “We’ll keep you up to date,” Cora assured me. “I understand. Your mother came all the way here from California; you shouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to spend time with her. If we find Beatrice, or find anything to tell us where she is, Derek will let you know.”

  I took a breath. “OK. You convinced me, plus there’s nothing I can do here anyway. I just don’t want you to feel like I’m abandoning you.”

  “Never,” Derek said with a grin. Cora shook her head. “C’mon, Tink. I’ll walk you out to the truck.”

  He guided me toward the door to the outside, pausing only long enough for me to peck Cora’s cheek. Once we got out into the crisp winter air, though, he stopped.

  “What?” I said, missing the feeling of his arm around my shoulders.

  “Didn’t Melissa say there was an outside entrance to the model home? Wonder where it is? ”

  “Probably there.” I pointed to a door on the other side of the storefront. “It’s locked, though. I checked earlier.”

  “Huh.” He went over anyway and shook the knob. It didn’t open for him, either.

  “Guess we’ll just have to wait until Melissa gets the key back from whoever she gave it to.”

  “Guess so. Unless Wayne can get it open.” He turned toward the truck again, but before he got there, he stopped. “What’s that? ”

  “What?” I examined the ground in front of his feet. There was a glimpse of something shiny among the snow and dirt.

  Derek bent to pick it up. “Cufflink,” he said after a brief inspection. “With RS engraved on it. Ray Stenham, I guess. Or Randy. Not a clue at all. They’ve probably been in and out of here a million times, at least. One of ’em must have lost it sometime.”

  He stuffed it in his pocket. “Let’s get you back to town, so you can see your mom.”

  When we got to the truck, he turned to me, boxing me in on both sides with his arms, hands braced against the hood and eyes serious. “Avery.”

  I nodded, my heart in my throat, the way it always is when I’m close to him.

  “You’ll drive carefully, right? ” His eyes were deep blue, looking into mine.

  I swallowed and nodded. “How will you get home? ” “I’ll get a ride with Cora. Or drive Beatrice’s car back to town, if Wayne thinks it’s OK.”

  “You have a key to that? ”

  He grinned. “No, but I have a screwdriver.”

  I rolled my eyes. “The fruits of a misspent youth.”

  “Something like that.” He leaned in. I closed my eyes. And when his mouth closed over mine, I lifted my arms and wound them around his neck and returned the kiss for a moment.

  “Here, let me help you in.” He opened the truck door for me and boosted me inside, a hand lingering for a second on my hip. “Drive carefully, Tinkerbell.”

  “You, too,” I said, turning in the seat to face him again. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  “Never.” He grinned and leaned in for another quick kiss, a light brush of his lips over mine. “I’ll see you later.”

  I nodded. My breath was gone.

  Derek hotfooted it back into the building after closing my door, and I put the truck into reverse and backed out of the parking space. When I looked back at the windows of the storefront, I could see a shadow standing there looking out. Just in case it was Cora or Derek, I waved. The shadow didn’t wave back, so it was probably just Melissa.

  Mom and Noel were up and dressed and drinking coffee with Kate when I got to the Waterfield Inn. Mom’s face was made up and her hair fluffed out, and Noel’s bald head looked buffed and shiny. They both greeted me with big smiles.

  “Morning, Avery!”

  “Hi.” I smiled back. “Did you sleep well? ”

  “Oh, yes. Wonderfully comfy beds.” Mom grinned. “Sorry you had to wait for us.”

  “It’s no problem. I got French toast when I was here earlier, and then Derek and I had something to do.”

  My voice or face must have changed on that last sentence, because Mom looked at me with concern.

  “Where did you go?” Kate wanted to know, mirroring my mother’s look.

  “Out to Clovercroft. It’s one of the Stenhams’ construction sites,” I explained for Mom and Noel’s benefit. “The Stenhams hired Beatrice to handle things in the office for them after their other accountant was killed in a hit-and-run accident last month, an
d she’s been working out there for the past few weeks. Crunching numbers.”

  “So you went to see Beatrice? ”

  I shook my head. “I wish. We went to look for Beatrice. She didn’t come home last night. Her car is parked in the lot out there, and the office was locked up nice and tight with her cell phone inside, but Bea is nowhere to be found.”

  “Oh, no,” Mom said, paling. “That’s horrible.”

  “It’s a little worrisome, yes. We’re hoping that it’s something simple, like Steve finally realized she was gone and drove up from Boston to beg her to come back to him, and now they’re shacked up in a motel somewhere. Cora called Alice—that’s Bea’s sister—and Alice is going to go to Steve and Bea’s house in Boston to see if she’s there. If she isn’t, I guess Alice will track down Steve. He has a right to know that his wife is missing, even if she left him. Maybe that’ll finally make him sit up and take notice.” I rolled my eyes.

  A long moment followed while the mental lightbulb flickered on over my head.

  “You don’t think that’s what’s going on, do you? ” Kate said. “She faked her own disappearance to see if that will bring him up here, when just leaving him didn’t? ”

  Mom and Noel turned to me, too, waiting to hear what I’d say.

  “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I didn’t think about it until just now. But it makes sense, in a twisted sort of way.”

  The others nodded encouragement.

  “You told me her husband’s been ignoring her,” Kate said, “ever since he got this fabulous job that keeps him away from home all the time, right? She probably tried to get him to stay home more. Cooked great meals, maybe offered sex, or said she wanted to get pregnant and needed to practice a lot . . .”

  I nodded. “When that didn’t work, she left him, hoping he’d come to his senses when he realized he missed her. But it’s been weeks, and he hasn’t taken the time to drive the two hours from Boston to talk to her, and in the meantime, she’s been bunking in Cora and Dr. Ben’s guest bedroom, when she was used to having her own nice house.”