Plaster and Poison Read online

  I glanced at her across the table. Her face gave nothing away.

  “What about Shannon?” Wayne wanted to know.

  “She saw him once in a while growing up. Nothing structured. We didn’t have a custody arrangement, since we were never married, and although he’s listed as her father on her birth certificate, Gerard never asked for visitation rights. Every once in a while he’d call and want to see her, and I’d let him, but it was never more than once a year or so. He just didn’t care enough for any more.”

  “So you didn’t know that he’d had contact with Shannon over the past few weeks?”

  It was Kate’s turn to glance at me. “I suspected it,” she admitted. “Yesterday, when Avery told me she’d seen Shannon with someone. He sounded like Gerard.”

  “But you hadn’t seen him yourself? Or spoken to him?”

  Kate flushed. “I called him yesterday, to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, sneaking around behind my back.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He didn’t,” Kate said. “I had to leave a message.”

  “And you didn’t hear back from him?”

  She shook her head.

  “Huh,” Wayne said. He had pulled out his tiny notebook and pencil and was taking notes.

  “Do you think maybe that’s what he was doing here?” I suggested. “He got your message and came to talk to you?”

  Kate shrugged.

  “Well, were you home last night?” Derek asked.

  Kate nodded. “All night. Making place cards for the wedding supper. If he knocked on the door at any time, I would have heard him.”

  Nobody said anything for a moment.

  “Any idea what he was doing in Waterfield?” Wayne asked. “Why he’d suddenly want to get to know Shannon after all this time?”

  Kate flushed angrily. I guess she must have forgotten, in the heat of the moment, that one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. “Oh, yeah. He probably found out that my grandmother died and left Shannon enough money to keep her comfortably for the next twenty years, at least.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Really?”

  Kate nodded. “I bet you that’s why he’s here. He was trying to get in good so she’d share it with him.”

  “Did you speak to her yesterday?”

  Kate shook her head. “After I tried to get hold of him, I tried to get hold of her. I had to leave a message there, too. She isn’t answering her phone. Not for me, at least.”

  “I’ll call her,” Wayne said. “If she won’t answer for me, I’ll call Josh and make him put her on. She’s next of kin; I have to talk to her.” He dialed the number and turned away.

  “How would Gerard know about your grandmother’s death and Shannon’s money?” I wanted to know. “If you didn’t have any contact with him?”

  Kate shrugged. “He may have seen the obituary in the Globe. My grandmother was pretty well known in Boston. Or maybe he ran across someone who told him. I do have a few friends left in Boston. And here.”

  “How many people did you tell?” I wanted to know, a little hurt. She hadn’t told us, and I thought we were close. Or at least that she and Derek were close.

  “In Waterfield? Just Jill Cortino, in addition to Wayne and Josh. She does some financial planning on the side, when she’s not helping Peter run the shop. I thought she might have some ideas for how we could make the most of the money. One can’t be too careful about investing these days.”

  “I doubt Jill has been chummy with your ex-boyfriend,” Derek said lightly, resting his hand on my back for a moment. “She has a low tolerance for liars and cheats.”

  Kate nodded. “I’m well aware of it. I still don’t think she’s forgiven Melissa for carrying on with Ray while you two were married. She’s thrilled you’re not together anymore, but she has never stopped despising Melissa for the way it ended.”

  Derek shrugged. “Water under the bridge,” he said.

  Before any of us had time to say anything else—and I was biting down on a snide remark about my predecessor, the former love of Derek’s life—Wayne turned back to us. “She’s on her way. Josh is bringing her.”

  “How did she take it?” Kate wanted to know, her voice concerned.

  “I didn’t tell her. Just that she needed to come home because something had happened. Once I told her you were fine, she didn’t ask any more questions. We’ll tell her about her father when she gets here. I figured you’d want it that way.”

  “Thank you.” Kate leaned into his side, where he was standing next to the chair she was sitting on, and closed her eyes. He ran a hand over her bright curls.

  Derek moved his hand from my back to my waist and pulled me closer.

  After just a few seconds, Kate lifted her head, some of the strain now gone from her face. “So what happens now? ”

  “Now we wait for Brandon and the forensic kit,” Wayne replied. “After that, we figure out what Gerard was doing in the carriage house, and who’d want to kill him. If someone killed him and he didn’t just die of natural causes. And then we get married and go to Paris.”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  “Why shouldn’t it be?” Wayne said. “He’s only been in Waterfield a short time, so he couldn’t have known more than a few people. All we have to do is figure out which one of them wanted him dead.”

  It did sound extremely simple. I couldn’t help but wonder if he realized as he said it that the two of them, plus Shannon, were likely the only people in Waterfield who knew Gerard well enough to want to get rid of him.

  Brandon arrived first, and he and Wayne disappeared across the grass and into the carriage house. Derek went with them, to have a second, closer look at the body and see if he could narrow down the time of death or see anything that would settle the question of natural versus unnatural death one way or the other. Wayne would get a second opinion from the medical examiner in Portland, of course, who would be doing the autopsy. But he often took Derek’s word for things when Derek was on hand. In a small town like Waterfield, procedures are often pretty relaxed, I’ve noticed.

  Kate and I sat down at the kitchen table to wait, silently nursing cups of hot, strong tea. She was probably thinking about Gerard and about how she would break the news of his death to Shannon. I wondered what Shannon’s reaction would be. It would depend a lot on how well she knew him, I thought; whether she’d become attached to him during the short time he’d been here, or whether they were still getting to know each other and she had reservations.

  “My dad died when I was thirteen,” I said, addressing the table. Kate looked up but didn’t speak. “He was only thirty-eight. It was an accident. Drunk driver. Kind of like Carolyn Tate. Wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kate said.

  I shrugged. “They caught the people who did it and sent them to prison. Not that that made it any easier at the time. I still miss him sometimes, even though it’s almost twenty years ago now. Mom missed him, too, for years. Until she met Noel.”

  “I’m sure she still misses him,” Kate said. “There’s nothing wrong with still loving a dead husband even though there’s a new love in her life.”

  “I guess.”

  We sat in silence a little longer. This time, Kate was the one who broke it.

  “I’ve spent almost twenty years hating Gerard’s guts. For seducing me. For not taking responsibility when I got pregnant. For not helping me provide for Shannon.”

  I nodded.

  “But even so, there was a small part of me, somewhere, that still had a soft spot for him. That remembered what it was like, being eighteen and in love. Before it all blew up in my face.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  She nodded, and when she looked up, I wasn’t surprised to see that her eyes were wet. “I may not have been happy to find out that he was here, cozying up to my daughter without letting me know about it, but I didn’t want him dead.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” I said.

  “I may have felt like I did, yesterday. But I didn’t wish him any harm. Not really.”

  “Of course not.”

  The so
und of a car pulling up outside and stopping in the driveway with a screech of brakes, saved me from having to think up something more to say. I wanted to believe her, really I did, but there was a part of me—a small, treacherous part—that wondered if I could. The expression on her face yesterday, when she realized who Shannon had been spending time with, had been murderous. And I liked Kate, but how well did I know her, really? Well enough to believe she wasn’t capable of murder, I supposed, but perhaps not well enough to know, bone deep, that she hadn’t killed her ex-boyfriend.

  Outside, a car door slammed, and rapid footsteps pounded around the corner. The kitchen door flew open.

  “Mom!”

  Shannon burst in, hair flying, her face pale and her eyes frightened. I could hear the car engine turn off, and then a set of more measured steps came around the corner and through the open door. Meanwhile, Shannon threw herself at Kate. “Mom! What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

  “I’ll go get Wayne,” I said, getting up.

  “I’ll do it,” Josh offered. He was standing in the door, hands in the pockets of his puffy, blue jacket, a long, striped scarf wound around his neck.

  “That’s OK,” I said. “I’d better.” I ducked past him and out before he could ask me why.

  When I got back to the kitchen, with Derek and Wayne in tow, Josh had taken his jacket off and gotten himself a cup of tea, which he was sipping from his vantage point by the counter. Shannon had also taken off her coat and had hung it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. It was clear from the way she was fussing over Kate that she thought whatever was wrong had to do with her mother. Seeing Kate crying probably hadn’t helped to alleviate her fears. When Wayne came through the door, she turned to him, dark eyes flashing.

  “What did you do to her?”

  Wayne rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do anything to her. I love your mother.”

  Kate smiled at him wetly.

  “So why is she upset?” Shannon demanded. She straightened, hands on her hips, and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. Josh’s eyes turned glassy behind the round frames.

  “Have a seat.” Wayne waved her to a chair. “We have some bad news.”

  “What kind of news? Did someone break into the carriage house last night? Is that why Brandon is here?”

  She sank down on the chair next to her mother and scooted it a little closer.

  “In a manner of speaking,” Wayne said. “Yes, someone broke in. And died.”

  “Oh, no! Who?” She looked around, taking account that none of us were missing.

  Kate fumbled for her hand. “Honey, it was your father. Gerard. He’s dead.”

  For a second, Shannon’s face was blank, absolutely void of expression. Then—“Daddy?” she asked, her voice cracking. “How?”

  Josh swallowed, and I could see his jaw clench and his hand tighten around the mug he was holding until his knuckles showed white.

  “It’s too soon to know for sure,” Wayne said, watching her, “but we believe, on preliminary evidence, that he was poisoned and asphyxiated.”

  “Oh, my God!” For a second she looked like she might faint. Josh made a movement in her direction, then stopped himself. Hot tea splashed out of the mug and onto his hand, and he turned to the sink, swearing under his breath. The sound of cold water running accompanied Wayne’s next statement.

  “I have to ask you some questions.”

  “Sure,” Shannon whispered.

  She had first heard from her dad a few months ago, she explained. He had contacted her on her Barnham College e-mail account and said he wanted to get to know her.

  “That’s when he heard about the money,” Kate muttered. “Probate was complete in September.”

  Shannon glanced at her but addressed Wayne. “We went back and forth a couple of times, by e-mail and phone, and then he told me he was coming up to Maine for a while.”

  “Why?” Wayne had pulled out his notebook and pencil and was taking notes.

  Shannon shrugged. “Just to see me. He’s been here for a few weeks.”

  “Staying where?”

  “Not sure,” Shannon said, biting her lip. “He had the car, so he always picked me up. We never went to his place.”

  Wayne made a note, presumably to find out where Gerard had been staying. “Was this the first time he’d been in Waterfield?”

  “No idea. If he’d been here before, he didn’t try to contact me then.”

  “Of course not,” Kate muttered. “You weren’t a rich heiress until this autumn. There was nothing in it for him until then. He always was good at keeping an eye out for Number One.”

  Wayne looked at her but didn’t comment. Instead, he glanced around the table, taking in Derek and me on the way past. “Can any of you think of any reason why he’d be in the carriage house last night? Did you arrange to meet him, Shannon?”

  Shannon shook her head. “He always picked me up at Barnham. And I wasn’t planning to be here last night. I had studying to do. Midterms. With Paige. He and I were going to get together for dinner on Friday.”

  A moment passed, and then we could see the realization hit her that there would be no more dinners with her dad, Friday or anytime.

  “Did he ever ask you about it?” Wayne asked gently. “The carriage house? What was going on there? Whether anyone lived in it? Anything like that?”

  Shannon shook her head. “He mostly talked about him and Mom, when they were young. And me, when I was a baby. About how he always wished they’d been able to work things out between them, but they were just too young when they met. Although to hear him tell it, Mom was the love of his life.” She avoided looking at Kate as well as Wayne when she said it.

  “Love, my left buttock,” Kate spat.

  Shannon’s pretty face crumpled, her lips quivering, and her mother reached out to her, voice softening. “Honey, I’m sorry. I don’t want to upset you any more than the news has already. But the truth is that when I met your dad, I was eighteen and stupid. He was twenty and slick. I thought I loved him. I thought he loved me back. He said he did. But when I got pregnant with you and turned to him for help, he left me to handle it all on my own. So don’t talk to me about the love of Gerard’s life. If he has one, it’s Gerard himself.”

  “He loved me,” Shannon whispered.

  Kate looked like she wished she could kick herself. Hard. “Of course he did, honey. I didn’t mean that he didn’t love you.” She looked up at Wayne, helplessly, as Shannon dissolved into tears. Josh twitched.

  It was at this pivotal moment that we heard the sound of another car pulling into the driveway outside. Two doors slammed and two sets of footsteps made their way through the slush and snow to the back door. A light knock heralded the arrival of a small figure in a royal blue coat, who looked around the kitchen for a second until her pair of blue eyes lighted on me.

  “Avery!”

  My mom had arrived.

  8

  The group broke up after that. Josh escorted Shannon into her room down the hall, where we could hear their voices through the wall, murmuring low. They were best friends in addition to the small matter of him being in love with her, so he might help her more at the moment than even her mother, especially given Kate’s conflicted feelings about Gerard.

  Kate introduced Wayne to my mom and Noel—as her fiancé, who just happened to be the chief of police, but with no mention of the fact that a suspicious death had taken place on the premises overnight and that was why he was here. After making the appropriate noises, Wayne excused himself. Kate took Mom and me upstairs to the suite while Derek and Noel trotted back outside to unload the car.

  The rooms in Kate’s B&B are named for the members of the Cabot family. None of the Cabots ever lived in the house, except for Anna Virginia, after she married Lawrence Ritter and ceased to be a Cabot. But as Kate once explained to me, the Cabots were a Waterfield institution and it seemed the appropriate thing to do. There is Captain Cabot’s room; John Cabot was a sea captain back in the day, and so was his father. There is Mrs. Mary’s room, Anna Virginia’s room, and John Andrew’s room, and the
n there’s the Widow’s Walk: the suite taking up the entire third floor. That’s where Mom and Noel would be staying.

  Back in the day, the suite had been the smallest of the three apartments in Helen Ritter’s house. Back then, it had consisted of a kitchen, a living room/bedroom, and a tiny bath. Now, most of the walls had been removed, and except for the bathroom—which was the old kitchen—the suite was one big room, with windows on three sides. Because the B&B sits up high, it’s possible to see not only most of Waterfield Village from the windows, but also the harbor and the ocean. The view is better in the summer, when the trees are green and the sun shines on the water, but it was still pretty impressive now, in spite of being monochromatically white and gray. The furniture is Victorian and dark, the king-sized bed has corner posts and a canopy, and there’s a sitting area with a TV off to one side, as well as a smallish dormer with a desk and chair. That’s where the old bathroom used to be. And of course the new bathroom is sublime, with green glass tiles, a double shower, and a jetted whirlpool tub. Everything the honeymooning couple could wish for.

  “Oh!” Mom said, looking around, “this is wonderful!”

  Kate smiled. It looked strained, but it was a smile.

  “Derek did most of the work,” I said. It wasn’t my intention to denigrate Kate’s contribution, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to sing Derek’s praises to my mom.

  “Really?” Mom glanced at Kate, who nodded. “Handsome and talented. He does beautiful work.”

  She looked around appreciatively. Kate looked at me, her eyebrows signaling You owe me one.

  I turned my back to her to address my mother. “I told you he was cute, didn’t I?”

  “Gag me,” Kate muttered behind my back.

  Mom giggled. “Yes, Avery, you did. And you were right. He’s definitely cute. And good with his hands.”

  She winked. Kate rolled her eyes. I blushed.

  Luckily I was saved from having to comment by the arrival of the man himself, carrying two suitcases and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. Behind him came Noel, carrying the other two suitcases. Obviously my mom had packed for every contingency.