Death of a Bean Counter, page 10
Clearly our conversation had ended. I stood to put my glass in the sink. ‘Thank you for the water … I’m sorry, I don’t know your first name.’
‘No. You don’t.’
On this, we could agree.
‘Mrs Gilroy?’
The voice came from the doorway, and the housekeeper’s face softened as she turned toward it. ‘Yes, dear?’
Jason came in, trailed by Sarah. ‘Do you suppose we could get something to drink? Lemonade, maybe, or iced tea?’
‘Of course.’ She stood. ‘We have both, which would you prefer?’
‘I’d like iced tea,’ Jason said. ‘Sarah? Mrs Thorsen?’
I thought I saw Mrs Gilroy’s lip curl at my name.
‘Please call me Maggy, Jason,’ I said.
‘What would you like to drink, Maggy?’ Jason asked with a smile.
‘You know,’ I said with a glance at Mrs Gilroy’s back at the refrigerator. ‘I’m fine. I think I’ll just pop out and say goodbye to Rafael.’
I had to restrain myself from sticking out my tongue as Mrs Gilroy turned to glare at me.
‘Mrs Gilroy doesn’t like me much,’ I said, handing Rafael a spade.
‘She’s getting cross in her old age,’ Rafael said, lifting the dirt to slip the last mum in place. ‘There are some days I don’t think she likes me either.’
‘But Jason sure lights up her life.’
Rafael got to his feet, setting down the spade. ‘He always has, from what I’ve heard. The boy can do no wrong with her – or his sister – and, believe me, he does plenty.’
‘In school? I got that impression,’ I said. ‘And it probably doesn’t help that the University of Wisconsin in Madison always makes the list of top party schools in the country.’
‘Excellent institution, all the same,’ Rafael said, slipping off his gloves. ‘Especially in earth sciences. My cousin is a professor of Herpetology there.’
‘I’m not sure what that is, but it sounds impressive.’
‘Amphibians and reptiles.’ He picked up the spade. ‘And on that subject, I need to move to the pond in front.’
Where he was about to work when Jayden came running out of the front door upon discovering her father’s body. ‘I’ll come with you.’
He grinned over his shoulder. ‘Do you like frogs?’
‘Passionately,’ I said, trailing after him.
‘I think I find that hard to believe.’ He stopped and waited for me to catch up.
‘You think right,’ I said. ‘I don’t know anything about frogs. I had turtles when I was a girl and even none of those lasted long.’
‘Turtles need sunlight,’ Rafael said, continuing on. ‘A lot of pet turtles die because of that. Or they’re handled too much.’
‘I was probably guilty of both. What I really wanted was a dog.’
‘You can’t pet turtles.’
‘Or take them for walks,’ I said bleakly. ‘And as for the sunlight, I was afraid the poor thing would cook so I specifically kept it out of the sun.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ he said, twisting his head to grin at me. The man had amazingly white teeth. ‘I’m afraid you killed it.’
I killed them. There was more than one. Many more. But speaking of murders, ‘Is there anything else you can tell me about the day before Kip died? Anything unusual?’
‘Wednesday? I’m afraid I wasn’t here to tell you. I went home to Cartagena for a wedding and returned Thursday morning.’
Oh, yeah – the red-eye, Pavlik had said. I hated those.
‘The nursery delivered the trees Wednesday afternoon,’ Rafael was saying. ‘They would have been working in the back.’
I perked up. ‘What nursery? Maybe they saw something as they were planting trees.’
‘Valley View.’ He stopped before we rounded the house and I followed the direction of his sweeping hand toward the service drive at the end of the manicured lawn. ‘But they just dropped them off near the service drive for me to plant. They wouldn’t have gotten close to the house.’
‘All the trees?’ I frowned, shading my eyes.
‘There, there, there and there.’ He pointed out four trees, one near the drive and the other three clustered nearer the house. Each of them had to be twenty feet high.
‘They’re enormous.’ The last tree I’d planted had been the three-inch high twig Eric had brought home from school on Arbor Day.
‘Mr Fargo preferred not to wait for them to grow,’ Rafael said with a grin. ‘I was hoping the nursery workers would place them in the holes I’d prepared so I didn’t have to move them around myself.’
‘They didn’t?’
‘Just the one closest to the drive, but I can’t blame them. Mr Fargo paid them for truck delivery only.’
‘I’m getting the impression Kip was cheap.’ I was trailing after him again, now in the front of the house.
‘The rich are a different breed. Perhaps that is how they stay rich.’ He stopped on the driveway and pointed. ‘See the refuge?’
I squinted into the pond in front of us. ‘The white pipe?’
‘Yes. When it gets cold, the frogs will go in there to hibernate and be safe. Today I’ll put down some branches and rocks to create a habitat and shield them from predators.’
I bet Rafael never even killed one turtle. ‘What’s Mrs Gilroy’s first name?’
He looked startled. ‘Mildred. Why do you ask?
‘Because she didn’t want me to know.’
‘And knowing now makes you feel better?’
‘Knowing now makes me feel merely adequate. Mildred Gilroy is a formidable woman.’
‘She is a force of nature, as they say.’
‘Does that force of nature know anything about the night Mr Fargo was killed, do you think?’ I’d fallen into referring to Kip as Rafael did.
‘Mrs Gilroy would have gone home by five or six p.m. She does not drive at night.’
As Pavlik had said. ‘But she was there earlier. Did she mention anything about that day to you? Who was here, maybe?’
Rafael opened his mouth as if he was going to answer but stopped. ‘I think it’s best you ask her.’
‘I tried to, but—’
‘I’m sorry. I don’t want to tell tales.’ He knelt by the pond.
‘Then she did tell you something,’ I said to his back.
‘There – look!’
I know a diversion when I hear one, but I did ‘look!’ to see a small yellowy-green shape disappear into the white pipe. ‘It’s tiny. Is it going into hibernation?’
‘Probably not yet. It is still too warm.’ He reached in and plucked the creature out. ‘Would you like to hold it?’
‘No, I, well …’ Suddenly, like it or not, I was holding the damn thing in the palm of my hand. It seemed as surprised as I was, its eyes wide.
‘Beautiful, is it not?’
‘Cute.’ I held my hand out for him to take the frog and wiped off my hands on my jeans. ‘And slimy, too.’
Gently replacing the frog in the pond, he fiddled with the pipe, trying to situate it more securely on the sandy bottom. Maybe I hadn’t gushed enough over his frog. Or else he was just done answering questions.
‘Thanks, Rafael,’ I said.
He waved but didn’t turn.
‘Did you get anything out of the gardener?’ Sarah asked as we walked down the driveway toward the car.
Faced with the option of waiting for Sarah outside in the Firebird or inside the Fargo house, I’d opted for the couch in the living room. I had to admit that the glass wall made for amazing afternoon light.
‘Other than frog habitats, tree-planting and that I’m a serial turtle killer, no,’ I said, stopping at the sidewalk and turning back toward the house. ‘Though he did say Mrs Gilroy worships the ground Jason walks on. All two acres.’
‘Until he sells it out from under her,’ Sarah said.
‘You got the listing?’
‘No, but I will. Jason just needs to talk to Jayden.’
‘And look up the deed to make sure they own it,’ I pointed out.
‘I can look that up with the county registrar of deeds, too,’ Sarah said.
‘Assuming it’s in Kip’s name, there’s still the question of the new will. Amy may own a piece or all of the house.’
‘Jason doesn’t seem to think so.’
‘Wishful thinking?’ Or maybe he’d found the new will and destroyed it.
‘You don’t like the kid, do you?’
‘He just doesn’t seem all that sad his dad is dead.’
‘Maybe they didn’t get along. That’s not a crime.’
‘It is if you killed him.’ I started walking again. ‘I mean, we have to look at who stands to gain with Kip dead. If there isn’t a new will in Amy’s favor, then it’s Jason and Jayden.’
‘Presumably, but we don’t even know that. Like I told Jason, he needs to talk to the lawyers, get the will and file with the court to get permission to sell any property before the estate is settled. Unless the property is in a trust.’
‘Then what happens?’
‘The successor trustee can sell the property at any time for the benefit of the heirs of the trust,’ Sarah said, following me.
‘Who’s the successor trustee?’ I stopped again.
‘No idea. Which is why I told Jason to get hold of his father’s lawyers and find out. Nothing can be done until we have either a copy of the valid trust or valid will.’
‘Back to motive, the heirs have it.’
‘Whether the heirs are Jayden and Jason or Amy,’ Sarah said, waving me on toward the car, ‘I don’t see where one has more reason to kill Kip than another. And, bigger question, why now? Jason and Jayden have probably been Kip’s heirs since they were born.’
‘Except now Amy entered the scene,’ I said. ‘You heard Jason talking about Frank Lloyd Wright’s “bimbo”. Practically reveling in the fact she was brutally murdered.’
‘But it was Jason’s father that was murdered, not the bimbo,’ Sarah pointed out. ‘Which in our case would be Amy. But with all this “heir” stuff you’re forgetting the very real possibility that Kip was ripping people off. Besides me and Mary, I mean.’
‘You think somebody took umbrage.’ Love that word. ‘Is there somebody in his office we could talk to? Somebody who might know what was going on?’ And be willing to tell us.
‘I told you I stopped by and the place was dark. I’m not sure if there’s anybody working there at all, besides Kip and the kids at various times,’ Sarah said. ‘First Jason before he went off to school and now Jayden.’
‘That’s it?’ I was watching a sheriff’s car slow down as it approached the house.
‘Occasionally there’d be somebody else to help. An office manager maybe, but they didn’t seem to last long.’
‘Can I help you ladies?’ The car had slid to a stop and now Fergussen got out.
‘Help us?’ Sarah looked around. ‘We’re walking on a public sidewalk.’
‘In front of a murder scene,’ Fergussen said, snagging his thumbs in his gun belt. ‘I’m just asking myself why.’
‘Tell yourself it’s none of your business,’ Sarah snapped.
The two of them were oil and water, and I didn’t know if I wanted to separate them or throw in a lighted match to see what happened.
‘Sarah is listing the house,’ I said, opting for the match.
‘You’re a real estate agent?’ he asked, surveying her. ‘I thought you sold coffee.’
‘I sell both, though why it’s any of your business I don’t know.’
I tried again. ‘The heirs are selling the house. Assuming Jason and Jayden Fargo are their father’s heirs, of course.’
It was like I wasn’t there. ‘The old lady said they’re fixing up the place.’ Fergussen was watching Rafael rake leaves. ‘I should talk to the Mexican while I’m here.’
‘He’s Colombian,’ I snapped.
Now the deputy did look at me. ‘Well, excuse me. But they all speak the same language, don’t they? And drug and corruption-wise, Colombia’s even tougher.’
‘Don’t you find they get dirty?’ I asked pleasantly.
‘What gets dirty?’ He pulled his thumbs out of his belt.
‘Your knuckles.’
‘My what?’ He looked at his hands.
‘Your knuckles. From dragging on the ground.’
‘You being funny?’ Fergussen roared, as Sarah tugged me away.
Sarah was grinning as we crossed to the car. ‘I’m impressed.’
‘And I’m irate. Rafael probably has twice the education that, that, that …’
‘I think you called him a Neanderthal.’ She high-fived me over the spoiler of the Firebird. ‘And you’re right about Rojas being smarter than Fergussen. Mildred says he was a teacher in Colombia and is working on his credentials here.’
Mildred. They were on first name basis. ‘She sure didn’t want to talk to me,’ I said, trying the door. It was locked. ‘I wonder what she’s hiding.’
‘Her dislike of you, and not very successfully.’
‘Me? I’ve never met her before.’
‘She thinks you’re nosy.’
‘I know that. But how do you know that?’
‘We chatted. She made iced tea and fed me cookies.’
‘You were with Jason, the golden child.’
‘No, actually, he had to take a call.’ She shrugged. ‘What can I say? I’m likeable.’
No. She wasn’t.
‘Did you ask “Mildred” about the day Kip died? Did she see Amy there?’
‘No. But as all sources have reported, Mildred left at five and Amy met Kip at the house to drive to the restaurant around seven. Mildred did say Jason, Jayden and Kip had lunch together that day. She made them chicken salad. Curried, I think, with grapes.’
Lovely. ‘Jason was in town then.’
‘Yes, but he drove back to Madison after lunch.’ Sarah climbed into the car and reached across to unlock my door.
When I didn’t move to get in, she said, ‘C’mon. I have to check the title and put a listing contract together.’
‘You are the little optimist, aren’t you?’ I was staring down the street. ‘Remember that other car that Amy told us about? Nobody has said who was driving it. You think Mary knows? She was sitting here for a while, from the sounds of it. She’d have noticed another car.’
‘You know how we can find out?’
‘How?’
‘Get in the damn car and we’ll go ask her.’
TEN
‘Other car? What other car?’
‘The one that was parked not fifteen yards behind you,’ I whispered. ‘Are you telling us you didn’t notice it?’
We were at the Brookhills library and Mary was manning the reference desk. Yet she was giving us no information.
‘I might have, but I don’t want to get anybody in trouble.’ She peered up at me over her reading glasses. ‘You really don’t know?’
‘Would she ask you if she did?’ Sarah asked. She was not whispering.
‘Maybe.’ She shrugged. ‘Maggy can be kind of tricky?’
‘Well, it’s been a long day and she’s kind of ticked. Just told off a deputy, in fact. I wouldn’t mess with her.’
‘Hopefully it was that Fergussen creep,’ Mary said.
‘It was,’ I said, raising my own voice to natural levels. ‘Now give.’
‘It was a little green car. Foreign probably. And old. I didn’t see who was inside.’
I felt my eyes narrow. ‘Which is what you told the authorities. Now tell us the rest of it. A little green car? Foreign? Old? You mean like Jacque Oui’s Peugeot?’
‘Maybe.’ In trying to avoid my eyes, she accidentally met Sarah’s.
‘Give,’ was all my partner said.
Mary threw up her hands. ‘OK, OK, OK. I admit it. Jacque was there. But that doesn’t mean he killed Kip. Not that some of us didn’t have reason to, the bastard.’
Sarah and I exchanged glances.
‘You, because of your missing money, obviously,’ I said.
‘And me, because of mine,’ Sarah acknowledged. ‘But please note I’m not the one who called him a bastard first.’
No, the mild-mannered librarian had done that in justifying the French fishmonger’s presence outside the victim’s house. ‘What about Jacque? Did he have investments with Kip as well?’
‘Are you kidding? Jacque is the one who turned me on to Kip. He told me he made him a fortune.’
‘Probably, “zee” fortune,’ Sarah interjected. ‘And are you saying his money is missing, too?’
‘Wait, wait.’ I was waving my arms and two students passing by, their arms full of books, stopped. I waved them on. ‘I assumed Jacque was waiting for Kip in front of his house because of Amy. That he planned to confront him for stealing his girl, essentially.’
‘It’s possible, I suppose?’ Mary said.
‘But if Kip stole – or really embezzled – money from him, too,’ I continued, ‘Jacque has twice the motive anybody else does.’ Which pleased me greatly. Not that I disliked Jacque, it was just … OK, yeah, I disliked him.
Mary held up both hands. ‘I’m not saying that I know why Jacque was there. I only saw the Peugeot and, as I told the authorities quite honestly, I never walked back there to look in to see who was driving it. Or even if anybody was inside the car.’
Shades of Amy. Nosiness was apparently a dying art.
‘I know Peugeots aren’t exactly ubiquitous in Brookhills’ – like Pavlik’s non-descript Toyota Corolla, for example – ‘but you’re sure it was Jacque’s?’
‘Baby poop green with a crunched left front fender?’
Depended on the particular baby’s diet, but: ‘That’s the one. He never had it repaired after he landed in the ditch during that snowstorm last spring.’
The freak May storm had destroyed Uncommon Grounds as well as the strip mall where we were located. Over the intervening year and a half, we’d renovated the Brookhills train station to house our coffeehouse and re-opened. Jacque hadn’t gotten his dent fixed.
‘You got close enough to see there was a crunched left front fender?’
Mary flushed. ‘Well, yes. I could kind of see that in my rear-view mirror.’
