Murder of a Hermit, page 19
They were strong words, and Hope and Summer listened intently.
‘It came as no great shock to me,’ Harriet continued, ‘that the Bergs’ make-believe child was a daughter who happened to be almost exactly the same age as Bonnie Jean. They said her name was Betsy Alice. At the outset, Jill and Austin pretended to mourn and commiserate with Carter regarding their mutual bereavement, alternately weeping over the tragedy and resolving to come to terms with it. And then one day, the pair drove into the clearing and declared that a miracle had occurred. They had seen their beloved Besty Alice once more!’
Summer drew a sharp breath. ‘Oh no. A séance?’
Hope turned to her sister in surprise.
‘Yes, it was a séance,’ Harriet confirmed, also appearing surprised. ‘How did you know?’ When Summer didn’t immediately answer, she said, ‘Did the Bergs try to pull the same trick with someone close to you? Is that how you encountered them?’
A full explanation of their dealings with Jill and Austin was far too long and complicated, and any explanation of their extensive experience with séances was out of the question, so Hope gave an ambiguous reply, letting Harriet interpret it according to her wishes. ‘We’ve heard stories.’
Harriet inclined her head. ‘The Bergs are consummate storytellers, and word is bound to spread over time, especially with something like this. They told Carter that at the first séance they attended, there was a puff of air and a hazy shadow. At the next séance, a faint outline of a person appeared. At the third séance, the outline was possibly of a young girl. At the fourth séance, the figure bore some resemblance to Betsy Alice. And finally, at the fifth séance, Betsy Alice was definitively standing before her parents.’
Summer sighed. ‘Carter desperately wanted to believe them, didn’t he?’
‘That’s exactly right!’ Harriet exclaimed. ‘He was desperate to believe them. Carter was an intelligent, rational man. He knew that the hands of time couldn’t be turned backwards and the accident couldn’t be undone. And yet—’
‘And yet,’ Summer finished for her, ‘he clung to the hope that somehow he might be able to see Kay and Bonnie Jean again.’
Harriet nodded vigorously. ‘The wretched Bergs preyed on that hope. When their initial accounts of the séances didn’t persuade Carter to participate, their supposed interactions with Betsy Alice became more intimate. At one, she smiled at her parents. At another, she tried to hold their hands. She almost spoke on several occasions, coming quite close to uttering something that sounded like Mommy and Daddy.’
Summer rolled her eyes.
‘That was my reaction, too,’ Harriet said, nodding some more. ‘The whole thing was obviously one big trick. And it was also obviously not a new trick for the Bergs. They were much too smooth and practiced. They had clearly used the scheme before, possibly many times. Every explanation, every justification, every argument in their favor was perfectly rehearsed. It was as though they knew in advance how I would attempt to reason with Carter, and they had already pre-empted it. I disputed, debated, cajoled and pleaded with him. But none of it worked. No matter what I said, no matter in what way I tried to convince him that it was a lie and a scam, he didn’t listen to me.’
‘Because he didn’t want to listen to you,’ Summer replied.
Harriet threw up her hands in frustration. ‘What could I have done! How could I have stopped him?’
‘You couldn’t have stopped him,’ Hope told her gently. ‘There was nothing more that you could do. I’m sure that Carter had his doubts – particularly since he wasn’t persuaded by the initial stories of Betsy Alice – but in the end, it was simply too easy for him to push his misgivings aside. You said that Kay and Bonnie Jean were his entire world. They had a permanent hold on his heart, and he was absolutely devoted to them. It’s highly unlikely that someone with such strong emotions would remain unwaveringly sensible and not have a moment when he weakened and figured that anything was worth a try.’
‘Did Carter try a séance?’ Summer asked Harriet.
‘Yes. It wasn’t successful, naturally. I wasn’t there, because I refused to participate in such a disgraceful sham. But Carter said that nothing happened. Nothing at all.’
‘Did Jill and Austin encourage him give it another try?’
‘Of course! They reminded him that they hadn’t been successful the first time, either. It had taken many, many séances for them to have results with Betsy Alice.’
‘And these many, many séances all required a cash payment, I presume?’ Summer said.
‘Of course!’ Harriet exclaimed again. ‘The Bergs claimed that the cost was negligible and irrelevant; they barely even thought of it. They told Carter that no price could possibly be placed on having contact with their precious Betsy Alice.’
Summer gave a derisive snort.
‘If I hadn’t been so furious at them, I would have laughed in their face when they said that.’ Harriet stomped an angry foot on the porch. ‘It’s practically blasphemous. A person should be allowed to mourn in peace, and the dead should be allowed to rest in peace. Fabricating a deceased daughter who returns from the grave to cheat a grieving man out of his money is appalling.’
‘There isn’t much worse than that,’ Hope agreed.
‘So Carter paid for additional séances?’ Summer inquired. ‘Did any of them purport to work in any way?’
‘No.’ It was Harriet’s turn to roll her eyes. ‘There was constantly some sort of an excuse as to why the séances didn’t function as advertised. The temperature of the room wasn’t suitable that day. Carter wasn’t relaxing his body and opening his mind sufficiently. The moon was too full or not full enough. No refunds were given for the failed attempts, of course. But each time, there was the promise that the next time would surely be successful. Except it wasn’t, either. And the next time always cost more.’
Harriet exhaled wearily before continuing, ‘I don’t know how much Carter paid for it all. But it must have been a very large sum, because at one point, he let slip that he was talking to the bank about taking out another mortgage on the cabin. Carter wasn’t some plush multi-millionaire with a private jet and a fleet of yachts. He needed his money to eat and live! And even setting the obscene amount of money aside, the way in which the Bergs went about stealing it from him is unconscionable. To attend grief support meetings to find and target your victim? It’s reprehensibly cruel!’
Hope and Summer had no response, because the truth of Harriet’s statement spoke for itself.
‘As though a person could wave a magic wand or snap their fingers and like a pack of obedient hounds, the spirits would wondrously appear from the Great Beyond. Ghastly.’ Harriet shuddered. ‘Absolutely ghastly. And if you consider—’
‘Who waved the wand or snapped their fingers?’ Summer interjected suddenly.
Harriet was startled by the interruption. ‘Huh?’
‘I was so involved in what you were telling us about Jill and Austin,’ Summer said, ‘and I was so offended on Carter’s behalf that I didn’t think about the actual séance. Who was the medium?’
‘The medium?’ Harriet scoffed. ‘That isn’t the word to describe her. Swindler is more accurate. The swindler owns that enormous house on the side of the mountain. She’s another deceitful and disreputable creature. She has the most absurd sign at the entrance to her property. Some of the neighbors have been trying to get her to remove it, but they haven’t been successful so far. She calls herself Madam Gina. Isn’t that ridiculous? It sounds as though she’s running a brothel.’
Despite the gravity of the situation, Hope almost smiled. That was exactly the same view Summer had of Madam Gina.
There was a bitter laugh from Summer. ‘We should have known, Hope. We should have realized that Gina was involved in this dirty business.’
‘Have you met Gina?’ Harriet asked curiously.
‘Briefly,’ Summer replied. ‘With her fancy shopping bags, and her designer clothing, and her pricey jewelry.’
‘Every time I’ve seen her, she’s been expensively dressed,’ Harriet concurred. ‘Which is another thing that bothers me! She’s obviously wealthy, but she’s still cheating people like Carter. I guess the rich are never rich enough in their minds. If Gina can swindle more, then she’ll swindle more.’
Summer looked at her sister. ‘I told you that Gina is making money from her séances. I told you that she’s an avaricious charlatan who pretends to talk to the dead for money. But you didn’t believe me. You thought that she might have gotten her wealth through honest means and that she might be just a harmless woman who was having some silly fun. Well, there is nothing at all honest or harmless about Gina Zaffer. In fact, she’s even worse than I imagined. I assumed that she was finding her quarries through the local obituaries. It never occurred to me that she’d stoop so low as to use shills like the Bergs to lure people in.’
‘On the bright side,’ Hope said, ‘at least now we know how Gina and Austin are acquainted and the reason they wanted to keep it hidden.’
Summer nodded. ‘They were afraid that their scam would be exposed. It’s difficult to be the secret accomplice to a con artist if everybody is already aware that the two of you are bosom buddies.’
Hope was thoughtful. ‘But why did Austin burst into the boutique and put on that act about the supposed affair? What was the point of it? And while we’re on the subject of putting on acts, why did Jill come in for the palm reading, which she was clearly also trying to connect with the supposed affair?’
‘Palm reading?’ Harriet echoed in surprise. ‘You do palm readings?’
There was a slight pause before Hope answered. She wished that she had been more careful in what she said. She didn’t want Harriet to equate her palm readings with Gina’s séances.
‘Summer and I own a little shop in the historic district,’ Hope explained. ‘We sell crystals and candles and the like. Summer also works with teas and tinctures. I do a bit of palm reading.’ She deliberately didn’t mention the Tarot, which was journeying even further into the realm of mysticism.
Harriet pondered for a moment, and then she smiled. ‘Now it makes sense. You’re the competition.’
‘The competition?’ Hope shook her head. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘One afternoon a few days ago,’ Harriet said, ‘Carter returned from the city. He may have been meeting with his book group, although I’m not certain. He was in an unusually good mood, almost happy. He said that by chance he had come across a shop in the historic district where the people might be knowledgeable about séances. When I asked him what kind of shop it was, he told me that it was a possible competitor to Gina, and that meant the people there might give him truthful information.’
Neither sister spoke.
‘Don’t you see?’ Harriet went on excitedly. ‘He was talking about your shop. You’re the competitor!’
Summer turned to Hope. ‘Carter must have noticed the boutique when he was visiting Miranda.’
‘That’s why he was pacing on the sidewalk in front of the window when Megan saw him. He wanted to come in and talk to us about Gina and the séances.’
‘But it still doesn’t explain all the nonsense with Austin and Jill about the supposed affair.’
‘Except maybe it does,’ Hope responded contemplatively. ‘Maybe Carter told Gina that he had learned about the boutique, and he used it as a threat or an ultimatum with her. If she didn’t provide him with a more successful séance, then he would go to us. Gina wouldn’t have liked that. It would have also made her nervous. She already knew how fond Rosemarie is of us. Gina wouldn’t have wanted Carter to defect to our camp. Having too many defectors is bad for business.’
‘So you think Gina sent Jill to investigate or keep an eye on us?’
‘More likely she was sent in an attempt to discredit us. The plan was probably for Jill to tell Carter after the palm reading that I said – falsely, of course – they were having an affair. It would have certainly upset him and possibly kept him from ever trusting us. Maybe Gina thought that it would work on a larger scale, too, and that was the reason behind Austin’s public tirade. His appearance in the boutique was conveniently timed for maximum exposure during the Wednesday afternoon tea. Gina could have been hoping to turn some of our clients and customers into her clients and customers by making us look bad in front of them, hence Austin’s repeated references to bloody witch and homewrecker, which aren’t words that generally inspire confidence.’
‘Austin is the bloody one,’ Summer muttered. ‘But I can understand why Carter fell victim to him and Jill. The Bergs played their parts to perfection. I really believed that Austin was enraged about the supposed affair. And I also believed that Jill was spooked and awestruck by the flickering lights during the palm reading.’
‘Gina probably uses fake flickering lights during her séances, and Jill has had plenty of opportunities to act spooked and awestruck at the appropriate moments. Don’t forget, her bank account depends on a good performance—’ Hope broke off abruptly. She turned to Harriet. ‘How low was Carter’s bank account?’
‘Are you asking for an exact dollar amount?’ Harriet frowned at her. ‘I don’t have any idea about that.’
‘No, I’m interested in whether Carter’s finances had become so strained of late that instead of paying for a future séance with cash, he might have proposed a different form of compensation.’
Harriet’s frown deepened. ‘I highly doubt that experienced fraudsters like Gina and the Bergs would accept a check or credit card for their alleged services, leaving behind a trail of receipts for the police and the taxing authorities to follow.’
‘I don’t mean money at all,’ Hope said. ‘I mean a trade.’
Summer – who had been slouched in her chair – sat bolt upright. ‘You mean the books!’
‘Precisely. We know from Miranda that Carter was running after Gina, and constantly calling her, and skulking around her house at odd hours. You suggested that he was stalking her, and you were right. Except it wasn’t a romantic obsession; it was a spiritual one. It sounds to me as though Carter was desperate for another séance. And if he didn’t possess sufficient money to purchase one, he might have tried to use us as an alternate type of payment. Either by threatening Gina that he would talk to us, or—’
‘Or by offering our books to her in exchange,’ Summer concluded. She spun in her seat toward Harriet. ‘Did Carter bring home an old book in the last day or two?’
The sisters looked at Harriet in anticipation.
She frowned some more. ‘An old book?’
‘Tattered leather cover,’ Summer described. ‘Bare spine. Yellowed pages. Overall decrepit appearance, with a noticeable mildew smell.’
‘Well, I’m not sure of the specific day,’ Harriet began slowly. ‘It was earlier this week. I picked a colossal bowl of cherry tomatoes in the garden. I remember that Carter was sitting on the porch with a worn book in his lap…’
Hope and Summer held their breath.
‘But it didn’t have a leather cover,’ Harriet told them. ‘It was a dog-eared paperback. A travelogue on the headwaters of the Amazon River, I believe.’
They exhaled with disappointment.
Summer stood up briskly, causing the willow rocker to tip over behind her. ‘Carter must have given the book to Gina, and that leaves us with only one course of action.’
‘Which is?’ Hope asked.
‘Go to her house and get it back from her.’
TWENTY-ONE
After Hope and Summer had solemnly promised that they would return to the cabin before the end of the month to choose a pumpkin from the garden, Harriet sent them on their way with a large bag of peapods, a slightly smaller bag of cherry tomatoes, and detailed directions on the least winding route to Gina’s house. The drive down Bent Mountain was only marginally kinder to Summer’s stomach than the ascent had been, but she suffered less, primarily because instead of paying attention to her motion sickness, she was focused on devising a plan of attack against Gina.
‘As I see it,’ Summer said, ‘we have two options. The first is to dance around the subject of the book with her and see if we get lucky somehow. The second is to dive straight in and demand that she give us back our property.’
Hope deliberated. ‘Both methods are problematic. Gina is extremely crafty, so dancing around anything with her will be difficult. But a direct approach might not be wise, either. At this point, Gina can’t be sure how much information we have. She can only speculate as to what we’ve learned about Carter, or uncovered regarding Jill and Austin, or whether we’ve even discovered the theft of the books. Setting aside Gram and Morris, no one other than the police and Dylan is aware that Volume I was found in Carter’s cloak and safely returned to us. It might work to our advantage if we conceal from Gina the exact details of what we know, especially if she is currently searching for Volume I.’
Summer nodded. ‘Gina will be forced to watch her step if we keep her guessing and off balance.’
‘But at the same time,’ Hope replied, ‘we don’t want to push her too far off balance. Don’t forget, somebody killed Carter. We aren’t any closer to figuring out who that person is. Considering that nearly everyone we deal with could be the murderer, we have to tread carefully.’
