Weekends Can Be Murder, page 21
“You’re saying we know more than we realize we do,” Larry ventured.
“Much more, Mr. Holmes. I strongly believe that we have nearly all the puzzle pieces. Now it’s simply a matter of fitting them together correctly.”
* * *
Not a surprise to anyone, Diane appeared in the foyer and announced that due to circumstances beyond the control of the kitchen staff, lunch would be quite late. However, a light meal would be provided as soon as they were able to prepare it, and dinner would then be served at a reasonable hour.
Early afternoon was a good time for a Crime Club meeting. A warm westerly breeze had sprung up, laden with moisture from the bay, and the gazebo provided some welcome shade.
“So, if Georgina wasn’t responsible for the trip wire on the stairs, who was?” Blaise wondered aloud, tapping the eraser end of his pencil on the piece of paper on his lap. Larry saw no one else making notes. Apparently, Blaise was the recording secretary for this session.
“Someone who had instructed Farley to lure Wylde to the beach at twilight,” said Selena.
“Don’t you mean someone who’d hired Farley?” Liz corrected her.
“I’m having second thoughts about that,” Selena told her. “We assumed he was being literal when he talked about the second person getting their money’s worth, but what if he wasn’t? What if it was a figure of speech, and he was actually working off a debt? Or owed someone a favour?”
“Or was being blackmailed, perhaps?” Liz suggested, continuing the train of thought.
“Possibly. Court changed his identity when he got out of prison because he wanted a fresh start. What if Farley had something like prison in his past and it caught up with him? What if someone who found out about that past threatened to derail his new life if he didn’t help them? I heard the terror in his voice, Liz. I think the person he was most afraid of in the world is right here on the island.”
“You’re thinking of Will?”
“It’s hard not to. Baker wanted to question Farley. He wanted information, and he was angry that Farley had died before he could be interrogated. But Will was just chasing him down, as if for sport. And when Farley fell onto the rocks, Will made a joke. If he could do that, I think he would be capable of anything.”
Selena’s voice broke on the final sentence. Larry knew what had to be going through her mind. He slipped a reassuring arm around her shoulders.
“Two simultaneous attempts to kill Gareth Wylde,” said Hugh, “apparently at cross-purposes and neither one successful. Thanks to Diane, we know that Farley was absent from the kitchen from 7:50 to 8:15 p.m., so he had to be involved in at least one of them.”
“You know, Diane told us that she and Farley returned to the kitchen at the same time,” Larry said reflectively. “We saw her compulsive attention to detail in the way she kept her quarters. If that was her actual personality, not just a character she was portraying, then Farley’s unexplained absence would have made her extremely uncomfortable.”
Selena perked up, her eyes wide. “Uncomfortable enough to go looking for him, maybe, and drag him back to the kitchen where she could keep an eye on him?”
“The M.E. was puzzled by the fact that the killer didn’t finish Wylde off while he was lying unconscious at the foot of the stairs,” Larry told her. “What if it was because Diane interrupted him before he could?”
“It makes sense. He couldn’t let her see Wylde’s body,” Selena reasoned. “If he noticed her coming toward him, he would have to drop everything and intercept her before she could reach him.”
“All right, let’s take this one fact at a time and see whether everything fits together,” Blaise suggested. “We arrived on the island at about five o’clock and were given an hour to prepare for dinner.”
“According to Court, Will was sent out to rig the fence while we were eating,” Selena cut in.
“Okay.” Blaise continued, “Dinner began a little late, because Lois had to make an entrance, and we dispersed for the evening at about 7:30.”
“And everyone who spoke to the serving staff heard that Court and all the servers were together in the kitchen from 7:30 until 7:50,” Liz added.
“That doesn’t exactly narrow down when or by whom the trip wire was set,” Norman pointed out.
No, it didn’t. However, pieces had been coming together in Larry’s mind since his two-hour nap, and he finally felt ready to share part of his theory.
“How about we consider a different part of the puzzle?” he suggested. “Here’s what I think we’ve established: it’s 7:50 p.m. The dining room has been cleared of dishes and all the servers are in the kitchen. Farley says he’s going out for a smoke and leaves via the elevator. That takes him to the grounds at the rear of the building. Wylde told us that the man who found him sitting on the back porch was wearing a cap. Will said he put his cap in his room before reporting to the kitchen for clean-up duty after rigging the fence. So Farley’s first order of business is to fetch the cap in order to avoid being recognized while doing everything else. If he’s going to fire the shot, then he also has to remove the gun from the desk drawer and replace at least one of the blanks with a live round before going back outside. If he’s not the shooter, then he may have to set the trip wire before going to pick up Wylde.”
“Did Wylde say in what direction the man wearing the cap was going?” Hugh inquired.
Larry searched his memory. “No, he didn’t. That means Farley could have set the trip wire, then come back from the bluff to pick him up.”
“And we’re assuming that Will was being truthful about putting his cap back in his quarters,” Liz pointed out. “In fact, we’re assuming that every server we spoke to was being truthful each time we went off-script. Let’s put some of those statements to the test, shall we? Norman, be a dear and find the elevator Mr. Holmes was talking about earlier, please.”
“It looks like a pair of square metal plates on the ground,” Larry told him, “butting up against each other, close to the wall.”
Norman trotted off along the side of the building, then halted and spun to face them. “Found it,” he called out. “Now what?”
“Just stand there for a bit,” Liz called back. Turning to include the rest of the group, she went on, “There’s a direct line of sight. If Farley used that elevator to exit the kitchen at ten minutes to eight, while Norman and Blaise were in the gazebo and Selena and Mr. Holmes were on the porch, how is it that none of you saw him? Or heard the elevator? It would have drawn your attention—those old-fashioned mechanisms are not silent.”
As Larry and Selena traded looks, Liz beckoned to Norman to rejoin the group.
“Fan lied to us,” Selena said. “Damn!”
“Or someone lied to her,” said Larry. “She told us she never actually saw Farley leave or return, remember? But who did she say she trusted more than anyone else in the kitchen?”
He could see comprehension dawning in Selena’s eyes as she replied ruefully, “Will Kemper. We know he’s got plenty of motive.” A pause, then, “What about opportunity? Could Will have set the trip wire while he was rigging the fence?”
“Possibly, but it would have been damned reckless of him,” said Liz. “Besides the risk of exposure, which would have been enormous, he would have been endangering the lives of any guests who decided to visit the beach after dinner.
“What makes more sense to me would be if Will began setting the wire, perhaps by attaching one end of it and putting the rest safely out of sight. Later, Farley could come out and finish the job just before fetching Wylde from the porch.”
“That has him crossing the lawn between the house and the bluff four times between 7:50 and 8:15,” Larry pointed out. “Once to set the trap, twice to lure the victim into it, and once to return with Diane to the kitchen. There were people all over the grounds. Someone would have to have noticed him outside.”
“Well, let’s see,” said Selena. “You and I were on the back porch from 7:30 until about 7:55. Then we went up to our rooms to change our clothes, without seeing Farley.”
“We left the gazebo and went inside as well,” Norman said, “maybe five minutes later…? That was when Wylde came out through the dining room doors and sat down on the bench.”
“And made a nasty comment that I wouldn’t repeat in any kind of company,” Blaise added.
“We went straight to our quarters,” Norman continued. “Farley must have come along immediately after that and invited Wylde to accompany him to the bluff.”
“Did you enter the house through the dining room doors as well?” Larry asked him.
“And invite further abuse by walking past that piece of—? No,” Blaise replied. “We went around to the front doors and directly up the stairs. And we didn’t pass Farley on the way.”
Liz was visibly searching her memory. “We didn’t track the time, just ambled around admiring the grounds and the sunset. We must have walked for about half an hour, because it was just beginning to grow dark when we came inside. Noticed Lois and Warfield, as I mentioned earlier, and passed Baker on the veranda on our way through the front door, but didn’t see Farley at all.”
“Huh!” said Selena. “Then he must have left the house via the dining room.”
“According to Wylde, Farley said he was on his way to rig the fence, meaning he was taking Wylde with him, not coming back to fetch him,” Larry went on. “So, how did the trip wire finish getting set?”
“Good question,” said Hugh. He sounded disgruntled. “I wish we knew what the police found on that staircase. It would make our job a lot easier.”
“I doubt whether Sergeant Brassard is in a mood to share that with us, pet,” said Liz, patting him on the arm. “Our little grey cells will have to suffice for now.”
Larry’s were firing on all cylinders. He kept going. “So, if Farley remained inside while we were all outside, between 7:50 and 8:00 p.m., that gave him plenty of time to collect the hat and the gun, unload and reload it, then exit via the dining room door to pick up Wylde,” he reasoned. “It’s a hundred or so metres to the fence—that’s a couple of minutes’ stroll—and Farley would have chatted Wylde up a bit, getting him to drop his guard, before suggesting he go down the stairs.”
“…by which point, Diane would already have left the kitchen to find Farley and bring him back,” Selena said. “When she saw him, he would be facing away from her, so to get his attention, she would call out to him…”
“…making him realize that he couldn’t wait for Wylde to reach the bottom of the stairs before shooting him,” said Blaise, continuing the thought. “Farley had barely enough time to pull the trigger and conceal the gun on his person before he had to intercept her.”
“But this scenario doesn’t give her enough time to search for him,” Liz cut in. “A cigarette break is ten minutes at most. If the times Diane gave you were accurate, Farley was gone for fifteen minutes before she decided to go after him. We know he didn’t take the elevator, so she wouldn’t have done so either. Climbing the stairs, running around inside asking people whether they’d seen him, checking the grounds at the front and sides of the house—that would have chewed up the entire ten minutes of her ‘bathroom break’.”
“She knew where to find him before she left the kitchen,” said Selena. “When Fan reported the missing gun to Court earlier and he asked where Farley was, she said he was probably out back having a smoke. Diane was in the room at the time.”
“So, she knew he was at the rear of the building, and the fastest way to get here from the kitchen without using the elevator…” Larry covered the distance to the back porch and wheeled to stand facing the bluff. “…is through the dining room doors. Norman, if you wouldn’t mind going to the fence and pretending to shoot a gun at someone on the stairs…?”
“You’ve got a hunch?” he said.
“More like a terrible suspicion. Just do it, please.”
Everyone watched as Norman loped to the yellow tape. He mimed firing a shot three times, from three different angles, then spun and called out, “Now what?”
“Now come back,” Larry shouted. To the group, he said, “She might not have seen the gun in his hand. But she would certainly have been close enough to hear the shot.”
“…which he could have explained with a plausible lie. They’re actors, Larry,” Selena pointed out. “They lie for a living. But let’s follow the scenario to its logical conclusion. Diane hauls Farley back to the kitchen before he can make sure Wylde is dead, and before he’s able to return the gun to the desk drawer. Court is furious at him for slacking off and reams him out. That’s what Fan overhears from the dining room.
“Farley still needs to reload the gun with blanks and put it back in the drawer. As soon as he can, he sneaks away from the kitchen again, but by this time, Fan and Lois are rehearsing in the drawing room. He hides, waiting for them to leave.”
She paused and looked expectantly at Larry. He took that as a cue to continue the narrative. “Fan leaves Lois there while she reports the missing gun to Court, who sends her back with a message for Lois that the rehearsal is over. Finally, the two women leave the room. Farley sees his chance. But all at once Court appears in the foyer, headed for the drawing room to find Arthur so he can tell him about the theft. Farley can’t wait any longer. He attacks Court from behind, hitting him in the head with the gun and knocking him unconscious. He drags Court into a room in the south wing, then puts the gun back in the drawer.”
“And after that, there are two shots fired?” Hugh asked. “From which weapon?”
Unable to reply, Larry sank backward onto the bench inside the gazebo, letting out his breath in a sigh. Hugh was right. It was a great story, but it had a gaping plot hole.
“May I offer a slightly different conclusion to that scenario?” said Norman. “What if Court caught Farley crossing the foyer and confronted him, and they struggled for the gun, in the process discharging it twice at precisely 8:41 p.m.? That would explain the shots we heard. Neither Court nor Farley received any bullet wounds, so, if we’re correct, and if the gun was firing live rounds at the time, the police ought to be able to find two slugs lodged somewhere in the room. It’s concrete evidence, just what Brassard keeps telling us she wants.”
“So, the house was wounded instead,” Larry murmured, “and it went into shock. That’s why it locked itself down.”
Selena’s eyebrows rose. “Now you’re scaring me. Stop it.”
“I’m just trying to rationalize what we all know happened.”
“The house is alive? That’s your idea of a rational explanation?”
“If you’ve got a better one, I’d love to hear it,” he challenged her. “Rafferty House locks and unlocks doors depending on whether it likes you. It refused to show Detective Constable Rivas the entrance to the secret passage in my room until she said ‘please’. This house has belonged to a single family for generations. It has watched their children grow up, and their children’s children. It has witnessed their tragedies. Maybe this is part of the curse. Or maybe the house is simply haunted. Maybe any house with a history like this one’s is going to behave the same way and we just don’t realize it because there aren’t that many of them around.
“I know how this sounds, but I am not losing my mind. I feel saner now than I have for the past few months. Rafferty House is a mystery that won’t be solved by logic. All we’ve got is our guesses, and I’ve just given you mine.”
Into the deathly silence that followed his words, Liz threw a hearty, “Bravo, Mr. Holmes! I knew there was a believer inside you somewhere.”
“Oy vey,” muttered Blaise, rolling his eyes to stare at the domed roof of the gazebo.
Norman just shook his head sadly.
“However, for the sake of the investigation, I would recommend that any guesses and discussion regarding the mystery of the house be kept strictly among the six of us,” Liz continued, lowering her voice. “Sergeant Brassard is a cold, hard realist. She won’t need much of an excuse to dismiss our information out of hand, and we need her to believe what we tell her.”
“It would be so much easier if we knew what everyone else has told her,” Norman observed.
“Yes,” Hugh agreed, “but unfortunately, the police are under no obligation to disclose information to civilians about any of their cases, open or closed.”
“And that’s why you need someone with connections to ask the pertinent questions for you,” said Warfield, leaning his grinning face through the entrance to the gazebo.
Nineteen
“Are you two prepared to play nice now?” said Selena.
“We’ve negotiated a truce,” he replied. “For the duration of this investigation, anyway. It’s not a perfect arrangement, but—”
“We’ll take it,” Hugh cut in. “And we have questions in need of answers.”
“All right, then. What are they?”
Larry went first. “After we found Court in the south wing, I asked him what had happened, and he told me he didn’t know who’d knocked him out. Now, we’re considering a scenario in which he must have recognized his attacker. So, naturally, we’re wondering—”
“—why did he lie? That depends. Who do you suspect was the attacker?”
“Farley.”
“Uh-huh. And you said ‘we’ found him. Who else was around when you questioned him?”
“I was teamed up with Baker for the search.”
“And there’s your answer,” said Warfield. “We remember the face of every criminal we put away, and I’m sure they remember ours as well. Baker and Court must have recognized each other on first sight, and we both would have recognized Farley, just as he would have recognized us.”
“So, we’ve got a couple of nervous ex-cons with an acting company (which means they’re all good liars), an ex-cop who’s not big on following rules, a misanthropic novelist with enemies everywhere, a dragon lady and her brooding son, and a brutally murdered corpse up to his eyebrows in debt… and you were suspicious of me because I didn’t fit in?” Larry said, his voice rising in disbelief. “Why? Because I was too ordinary?”
