Conundrum (14 page)

“Maybe.
But she seems to have that alibi for Friday. Was Adam there?”

“Alyssa said that he was playing squash with Arturo Herrera. That should be easy enough to check. Oh, and I was able to pry Jerry loose from G.B. long enough to unearth an alibi for Will and himself during the critical time at the graduation party.”

“Is it a credible alibi? I can just picture that weasel taking advantage of Carey’s having been out-of-it.”

“His alibi is that he had his eyes pinned to Will’s every movement during the party. I get the sense that he had the
hots
for your boyfriend back then. Who knew?”

“Well, that’s one person at least that
Will
never slept with. At least I don’t think …”

Changing the subject fast, Ellie
gabbed
a pad of paper from her nearby desk and said “Let’s make a matrix of the five suspects’ actions during the three murders. This is getting way too complicated to keep in our heads.”

They eliminated Will from the suspect list, so that left: G.B., Adam, Alyssa or C.C. as suspects in Carey’s death; G.B. or Jerry as suspects in Will’s death, and only Adam or C.C. as suspects in Norman’s death.

“So, no one person could have killed all three?” Ellie said.

Iris frowned at their chart. “That’s what our chart says.”

“There have been three murders and we still don’t have all the pieces,” Ellie started to clear the dishes from the table. “I think we’ll have to l
et the police take it from here—
exa
mine fibers or get DNA evidence—
whatever they do to get proof. This may be as far as we can get by shaking the trees.”

“Still, I think we’re getting closer. But it’s too dangerous for us to poke around anymore. Besides, Detective Malone said he’d charge me with obstruction of justice if I turned up at any more murder scenes.”

“Well, that’s not fair. The murderer is setting you up.”

“We know that, but the police don’t. Still, I can’t stand the thought of the murderer slipping away again like he or she did 20 years ago. Norman didn’t deserve to die. He was irritating, sure. He could get jammed on ‘play,’ but he was basically a harmless, if pretentious, nerd.”

“I think it’s time for us to keep our distance from all the people at that dinner.” Ellie said as she wiped a butter knife with a paper towel. “But we also need to keep the police from thinking you’re the killer. You did have strong connections to all three victims. What is your brother doing to defend you?”

“He’s telling me to avoid providing any more damning circumstantial evidence, or I’ll get sent to the chair.”

“Swell. The police need to get this wrapped up soon, before someone else gets killed. They need to get somebody behind bars. And we need to insulate ourselves from the whole thing. Tomorrow I’ll get back to the second draft of my book and you’ll start your new project in Chestnut Hill. Then Raven gets back from RISD on Wednesday. You promised to make her a cake. Meanwhile, we’ll leave this for the police to figure out. Agreed?”

“Absolutely,” Iris crossed her heart and had every intention of sticking to this plan.

Chapter 23

S
he was startled to hear her doorbell ring at dinnertime that evening. Few people except Sierra Club solicitors ever approached her front door. She saw Luc through the door’s glass panel, his blue eyes twinkling. Sheba looked up at her quizzically.

“You order a pizza, ma’am?” He
held up a large box from Emma’s—
the source of the best gourmet pizza in Cambridge.

She gave him a grin, chin raised.
“Depends.
What’s on it?”

He peeked into the box: “
Chevre
and basil?” He cocked an eyebrow. Iris had always wanted to be able to do that. As a girl she used to practice isolating just one brow while she sat with her mother in church, but she’d never succeeded.

“Yup.
That’s mine. Come on in, young man.”

He handed her a padded yellow envelope.

“What’s this?”

“I don’t know. It was sticking out of your mail slot.” He bent to pat Sheba, who was sniffing intently at the box. The aroma was tantalizing.

“Watch out. That’s my vicious watch dog Sheba.”

At hearing her name, Sheba rolled onto her back, legs in air.

“Vicious.” Luc laughed. “I can see that.” He obliged the watch dog with a full-belly rub.

As she led him back to the kitchen, Iris turned down Lucinda Williams’ languid, bad-girl voice crooning “Words Fell”, and tossed the envelope on the kitchen’s island.

“Don’t turn down Lucinda on my account,” he said.

“Actually, I’ve been trying to drown out what happened this afternoon.”

“What else could’ve possibly happened?” He set down the box on the kitchen table and looked at her, turning serious.

“I know, it’s incredible but there’s been another death. Norman. I found his body out in Lincoln.” She rested the palms of her hands on her eyes.

Luc erupted into coughing before he managed to wheeze out “
wha
-a-at? Norman’s dead? We just saw the guy. Was it an accident? Are you okay?”—all interspersed with more coughing.

“Do you want some water?
How about a beer?”
She hurried to get two bottles of Sam Adams and a bottle opener.

“No, it looks like murder again, using the same method as with Will. Norman called this morning. God, it was just this morning! He asked me to come out there to help him hang some artwork. When I got there, I couldn’t find him. I thought he might be down in the wine cellar and
couldn’t hear me. Well, he
was
down there. Someone had stuffed his dead body into the wine refrigerator.”

He stared at her, open-mouthed. Then, he snapped his mouth closed and said, “Damn.”

She looked down and studied the pizza. She couldn’t get the ugly image of Norman’s corpse out of her head.

“Iris, why don’t yo
u move in with Ellie for
awhile
—
just until the killer is found? You could be next on this guy’s list. There’s a psycho running around a
nd now two people are dead—
no, three.”

“I know. I will lie low. But the people from the reunion have all left by now except G.B., and I never run into him. I intend to leave all further sleuthing to the police. I just hope they can manage to figure out who’s doing this. I have no sense of whether they’re getting anywhere. Detective Malone is playing his cards close to the vest.”

Luc hesitated. “I don’t know if I should even mention this now, but I saw my father’s old partner this afternoon. We talked and I tried to get out of him anything he might have heard about the case. At first Ed didn’t want to say anything at all, but then he loosened up. He says they haven’t found Will’s cell phone yet and the wife’s alibi checks out. Also, C.C., Alyssa and Adam are in the clear for the time frame of Will’s death. That’s all he knows. Or all he’d tell me. I did ask him if he remembered that case from 20 years ago, of the Harvard student going off the balcony, and he did. They thought it was a clear-cut drug thing, tragic but all too common. Then he went on to say that one thing had always bothered him about the case. The kid’s apartment had been tossed bef
ore they got there the next day—
you know, burglarized. It’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between the usual mess of a student’s apartment, especially at the end of a term, and a place that’s been systematically searched, but he had the definite impression that it had been gone through.”

“Hmmm.
I wonder if Carey’s friend, Patty, knows anything about that. Would it be dangerous to talk with her?”

“Please Iris, don’t risk it.”

Luc, then Iris, picked up a pizza slice, now cold, and chewed in preoccupied silence.

“This is amazing pizza. I’m sorry I’m not better company tonight.”

“I’d say discovering a corpse a few hours ago is a good excuse for not feeling chatty. Would you like me to go?”

“No, I’m glad you’re here but I’ve completely lost my appetite and this pizza is too good to waste.”

“Here, I’ll wrap it up. You can have it tomorrow.”

Luc crushed the pizza box into her recycling bin by the back door while Iris cleared the plates. She glanced at the envelope still on the counter. No address or name. As she tore open the flap, her mind had a split second to register the scraping sound.

Chapter 24

“
O
oooh
, God. My head is in a vise,” Iris moaned.

The next thing she blurted out, after she opened her eyes and registered the hospital bed she lay
in,
was “Don’t call my brother!”

Detective Malone couldn’t hold back a snort of laughter.

She smelled something burning. The explosion came back to her. “Where’s Luc? Is he okay?”

“Right here.
I’m fine,” he said, leaning forward in a chair next to her bed, his face filled with concern. The dim light coming through the window behind him hinted at some time in the evening.

“Do you want me to get the nurse for more pain meds?”
luc
asked.

Her head throbbed, but she wanted to get answers before losing her concentration.

“That’s okay. I’ll wait. What about Sheba? Did she get hurt?”

“No, no, she’s fine. When the ambulance came, your neighbor, the woman with the gray braid, came over to see what happened. She said
that Sheba could stay with her—
said she looks after her sometimes when you’re away.”

“Right, that’s good. What happened? There was an explosion, wasn’t there?”

Detective Malone leaned against the door, watching her. “You got a letter bomb. It was a crude device— match-heads on one side of the flap and flint on the other. When you tore it, the burst of flames knocked you back and you hit your head on the edge of the counter. This could have killed you instead of just leaving you with minor burns. Your friend here thought fast, put out the fire, and called 911. We couldn’t find any prints on the remains of the envelope. The doctors are keeping you here overnight to watch your burn blisters and make sure you don’t have a concussion.”

Iris felt the edges of a bandage on the side of her forehead. That’s what was throbbing, she realized. She could see another bandage extending up her neck from under the hospital
johnny
. “Did it burn my face?”

“No,” the detective said. “I’m told that your friend here smothered the flames before they could do much damage.”

She looked across at Luc and smiled weakly. “Good work, bodyguard. Thank God you
were there. A letter bomb—
I can’t believe it!”

“I know, it’s crazy.
I called Ellie and she’s on her way. She’s bringing some of your things,” Luc said, reaching for her hand and giving it a squeeze.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, Ms. Reid, but I’d like to go over anything you might remember that could have triggered this attempt on your life.”

“That’s just it. I can’t make any sense out of the last few days. You know how I spent most of today, Detective. I’ve told you everything I know about Will and Norman. I can’t figure out any connection between them, and yet there must be one. What can
you
tell
me
about what’s going on?”

“I can’t talk about the murder investigations, but I can say that my detectives are canvassing your neighborhood to see if anyone saw who dropped off this envelope. This murderer is clever and he’s getting bolder. Still, his luck can’t go on like this forever. Someone’s going to spot something out of place. What concerns me is your safety. You’re lucky to be alive. He, or she for that matter, seems to think you know something that might incriminate him.”

“All I know is that Will’s wife told Ellie she overheard him talking on his cell saying he would meet someone for lunch on Friday and then drive out with them to the dinner later on.”

“Yes, we got that information too. We’ve been checking out everyone at the Friday night dinner and their alibis. But Ms. Reid, I can’t stress this enough, this bomb was meant to silence you. Let us do the investigating. If anything occurs to you, any connections from the past that you see in a different light, call me immediately. Don’t try to follow up on anything yourself. It’s gotten too dangerous. You have my number.”

“I have it and I’ll call you, I promise.”

As Detective Malone walked out, a nurse in hippo-patterned scrubs strode in brandishing a blood pressure cuff. “Time to check your vitals,” she called out cheerfully.

Luc stood up and squeezed her gently on the shoulder. “I should take off. I’ll call you in the morning. I hope you can sleep in here.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get them to give me some good drugs. Thanks again for helping me.”

He smiled back at her,
then
walked out.

“That your boyfriend? He seems nice,” the nurse said while pumping the cuff excruciatingly tight.