Dead Madonna (24 page)

“Right.”

A sudden flash of headlights caused everyone to look up and out towards the long, straight drive leading to the farmhouse.

“Who the hell?” said Ray, cursing softly. It was too dark to see the color of the car but Osborne could tell from the shape that it was a small sedan. Not one of the police cruisers.

“I hope that’s not her daughter,” said Mallory.

“Can’t be,” said Osborne, eyes riveted on the strange car, “her daughter drives an SUV.”

The car stopped in front of the farmhouse, the engine running. The door on the driver’s side opened. A figure got out and crossed in front of the headlights: Marcy Kurlander.

“Hey! You!” bellowed a voice from inside the farmhouse. Marcy stopped short, illuminated in the wash of the headlights. “Chief Ferris, it’s me, Marcy—I’m here about the Mass for DeeDee.” She waved one hand in which she was holding something small and white.

A rifle shot, then silence.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Lew’s voice rang out across the fields. Marcy was through the door before Ray and Osborne had crossed the field halfway. They entered to find her tearing at the duct tape holding Lew’s arms.

“Marcy,” said Osborne, “whatever possessed you? You could have been killed.”

“I had no idea any one except Chief Ferris was here,” said Marcy, looking up at them. “I brought this poem that I had printed up to hand out at the church during the funeral Mass tomorrow. I wanted to show it to Chief Ferris.” She looked over at Lew, who was flexing her fingers and hands now that her arms were freed. “You’re the only person I know who understands,” she said. “I was feeling pretty down and thought maybe just talking to you for a bit might help so I decided to drive out. I should have called or waited, I know …” Her voice trailed off as she followed Osborne’s gaze across the room.

Gwen Curry lay face forward on the kitchen table. Gretel’s single shot had found its mark. The woman died instantly.

“This may not sound right,” said Lew softly as she reached to squeeze Marcy’s shoulders, “but I’m so damn grateful you were feeling bad.”

C
HAPTER
33

Hands gentle on her shoulders, Osborne helped Marcy to her feet and handed her off to Mallory and Ray. He knelt, his eyes searching Lew’s. “Are you hurt?”

“No, no, no. But I am so happy to see you!” She managed a smile.

“This was too close, kiddo,” said Osborne, his voice hoarse and blinking back tears as his pocketknife cut through the remaining bands of duct tape binding her legs to the chair. However brave Lew tried to sound, her shirt was soaked with sweat.

“There—how does that feel?” said Osborne when she was able to stand.

Shaking her arms, stamping her feet and giving her hands a brisk rub, Lew said, “That tape cut off my circulation.” Flexing her fingers, she raked her hair back from her face, took a deep breath and turned to the five people watching with concern on their faces. Grinning, she said, “Hey, you razzbonyas—it’s after seven! I expected you at lunchtime. What the hell happened?”

As everyone laughed in relief, Osborne said, “You tell us. I didn’t get worried until around three o’clock when you weren’t answering your phone.”

“And
that
was two hours too late,” said Lew with a snort. “What
did
happen, Chief?” said Ray. “The minute we saw that woman’s image on the FawnCam we were heading this way. You never saw Doc move so fast!”

“How the hell did she get to you? Didn’t you see her crossing the field?” said Osborne.

“She caught me totally by surprise. You know I took the morning off, so I was in my vegetable garden, concentrating on picking lettuce leaves—I never even heard her come up behind me. Suddenly I have cold steel in my ear, look up, and guess who.

“Doesn’t take brains to see when a .357 is loaded. And I had every reason to believe she had the safety off—so I knew right then I better just stay calm and take orders. How long has it been anyway? I feel like I’ve been in that chair for
days.”

“I wonder why we didn’t see you on the FawnCam, too?” asked Gretel.

“Because the deer garden is on the other side of the farmhouse—it’s Lew’s way of keep the deer out of her good vegetable garden,” said Ray. “Six and a half hours?” Ray gave a puzzled look. “Why did she stay so long?”

“Why not. ‘Chatty Kathy’ had a captured audience—she was having a great time,” said Lew, with a touch of grim humor. “She told me everything. God forbid I die thinking her husband was anything but a doofus. No, she was forthcoming on every detail of the scam that
she
orchestrated, not Hugh, over the last two years. She was quite proud of the fact they’re wanted in at least three states. I have to admit—the woman was brilliant.”

“And a bully. She had you pinned like a butterfly,” said Gretel, “and enjoyed watching you squirm.”

“Oh, yes,” said Lew. “Finding me here made her day. She wasn’t expecting to, you know. She was planning to hide out until I got home after work. So when she found me—hey, she was delighted to take her time.”

“Thank goodness,” said Osborne. “If she had acted quickly—”

“But what was she thinking?” said Mallory. “Was she planning to kill you and then go back to selling on eBay? Figure no one would find out?”

“She was convinced she had us all fooled—
everyone,”
said Lew. “People like Gwen Curry think they’re smarter than the rest of the human race.” She added with a heavy sigh, “And that’s what made it so hard to deal with her. She would not listen to reason …”

Eyes sad, she studied Gwen’s still form where it lay across the kitchen table. “I can understand her fury over DeeDee Kurlander seducing her husband, but where did she get off thinking I was doing the same?”

“Is that what she said?” asked Osborne.

“Yes, she did. She accused me of coming on to him just like DeeDee did. Of course she’s delusional, but where does that thinking come from?”

“You listened to the man,” said Osborne. “With patience and respect. And she misinterpreted.”

“I think you’re right, Doc,” said Lew. “That’s certainly something she refused to do—or didn’t want to do. Also, no question that couple was breaking up. You think she would take any blame for that? No. And the longer I’m in this job, the more often I deal with twisted minds—I’ll never understand why these people think the way they do.”

“Did she really think she would get away with killing you?” asked Osborne.

“No. She knew that the facts would come out, but she planned to be long gone by then. She didn’t want to take the chance that someone in one of the cabins on the lake might see her drop me off the end of the dock, which is why she hung out here so long. She was waiting for after dark.

“The rest, to hear her talk, would be easy—just pack up her dog and head for the Canadian border. Said she had plenty of cash.”

“Oh, gosh, the dog,” said Mallory. “What do we do with the dog?”

“I’ll take care of it,” said Ray. “An old girlfriend of mine loves to take in stray animals.”

Lew stood up and, hands on her hips, looked around the room. “I think it’s time I stopped being a victim and took charge of things. Let’s get Roger and Todd back to town. I’ll call Laura and have the ambulance sent for Gwen.”

“Wonder who we go to for information for the death certificate,” said Osborne, reaching into his shirt pocket for his notepad.

“We’ll figure that out as we go,” said Lew. “Right now, if you’ll excuse me, everyone, I have to call Wausau, arrange for the autopsy and see what they say about the situation here. It may be they’ll want Dan Wright up here again.”

“Lew—are we still on for fish fry?” said Osborne.

“Are you kidding?” Too late Lew saw the twinkle in his eye. She punched him in the arm.

C
HAPTER
34

“I
t started with Laura,” said Lew in answer to the question Ray had asked as the waitress delivered serving plates of blueberry pancakes, link sausages, eggs scrambled with ham and buttered toast to the long table in Kristine’s Restaurant, Lew’s favorite breakfast place. They had arrived just in time to get the last big table and everyone was there except Marcy, who had the funeral Mass and wake to prepare for. But for Ray, Mallory, Gretel, Doc and Lew this was a great way to start a sunny Saturday morning, inhaling the aromas that filled the crowded little Three Lakes diner.

It was almost nine a.m. They had all slept in after a night that didn’t end until three in the morning. Dan Wright hadn’t seemed to mind missing fish fry with his future in-laws, and with two colleagues had made it from Wausau to Lew’s place within ninety minutes of her call. Still, even with his speedy arrival, the details of preparing the body for transport to the crime lab’s morgue, interviewing everyone from Lew and Gretel to Mallory, Marcy and Doc, and then securing Lew’s place had taken hours.

“Laura’s young, you know, and she was so distraught after she got Mallory’s call to send Todd and Roger for backup that she forgot protocol. So when Marcy Kurlander stopped by and asked how to reach me with a written invitation to the wake for DeeDee—Laura handed her my home address. She assumed Marcy would drop it in the mail, not drive out to my house with it.”

“How did she get past Roger and Todd is what I’m wondering,” said Ray. “I thought those two guys were on the highway right outside the drive into your place, Chief.”

“Oh, it was the usual Roger screw-up,” said Lew. Todd was stationed about half a mile away watching traffic from the east. Roger was closer to my drive, but he decided to give some guy a ticket for going two miles over the speed limit so he wasn’t paying attention to the road when Marcy came along and turned in. He never even saw her.” Lew’s shoulders slumped in relief as she said, “We are so fortunate that Marcy herself didn’t get shot.”

“Marcy and yourself,” said Osborne. “Lewellyn, it’s sheer luck that
you
are alive. Gwen Curry could so easily have shot you when she heard Marcy drive up.”

Lew nodded. “I know. But what she did do was move across the room to look out the window, giving Gretel a target, thankfully. Although I wish the whole thing could have ended without losing another life.” Lew sighed.

“Chief Ferris,” said Mallory, “I can’t stop thinking about those people—the Currys. They must have been having problems long before DeeDee got involved, don’t you think?” said Mallory. “If I’ve learned anything in therapy since my divorce, it’s that people split for reasons that have been simmering for a lo-o-n-g time.”

“No doubt,” said Lew, “but DeeDee’s pregnancy is what convinced Gwen that Hugh was leaving her for good. No way was she going to let him run off with all their money and leave her behind as a target—the accomplice to the bank fraud.”

“Did you know that when she showed up at your place? That she had shot her husband, that it wasn’t a suicide after all?” said Ray.

“I should have but I didn’t. Dan Wright had left messages on both my voice mails as he was driving out of town yesterday around noon,” said Lew. “But that was after I checked my messages before going into the garden—and I haven’t had time to replace my cell phone. Had I done so, I would have learned that the autopsy on Hugh Curry’s body showed rope burns on both wrists, and other evidence that he died with his arms tied behind his back.

“But Gwen herself is the one who told me she killed DeeDee and Nora; Nora because she overheard that phone call and Gwen was sure the call could be traced to her. She was able to find her quickly because the poor woman had attended the job fair. She just looked up her address in the Loon Lake phone book.”

“Lew, I could kick myself. I should have recognized Gwen’s voice the first time we heard that tape,” said Osborne. “It’s unmistakeable now. How could I have missed that? How could I have been so stupid?”

“Please, Doc,” said Lew, “we’re all human beings. When we see or hear things out of their usual context, they can be impossible to recognize. I’ve run into people from Loon Lake when visiting my daughter in Milwaukee, but not recognized them until they flagged me down. If you’re not expecting to see something—you won’t see it. That’s why eye witnesses are the worst witnesses. Same with that call—we weren’t expecting the Currys. For that matter, you had only met them twice. And when you and I were meeting with them, we were listening for details, not voices.”

“Chief,” said Ray, spearing his third sausage link, “I’m curious as to how Gwen Curry caught up with DeeDee out at the campground, since I saw no sign of anyone forced into the area. Did she talk about that at all?”

“Oh, yes. The given is that DeeDee made the mistake of paying too much attention to Hugh when she thought Gwen wasn’t watching—she was. Add to that Gwen’s suspicions, not only of an affair but she was pretty sure DeeDee had witnessed Hugh moving money out of several accounts.

So Gwen was waiting for her to leave the Chamber office the other night—the night when DeeDee drove straight to Robbie’s party. She followed her to Moccasin Lake, parked behind some boat trailers and waited. Her plan was to stay until DeeDee left the party, force her car off the road and attack her somewhere on the way home.

“She was quite surprised when DeeDee returned to the parking lot so early that night. Right after her two friends drove off, DeeDee walked down to the campground, which was out of sight from the public landing. Gwen, of course, followed her. Bert was waiting near a firepit and the two talked briefly. No doubt Bert was telling DeeDee once again that he had no intention of marrying her, because after he left, DeeDee stayed. She sat down on a log, crying. That’s when Gwen showed up.” Lew paused. “Poor DeeDee. Gwen hit her once with the muskie gaff and we know the rest, thanks to the Wausau boys.

“But Dan had an interesting piece of news that links Gwen to both murders. Dog hairs found around the sites where Nora and DeeDee had been killed have been traced back to the Curry’s dog. Very likely they came off Gwen’s clothing.”

“What about that muskie gaff?” said Osborne, the images of DeeDee and Nora’s mutilated bodies vivid in his memory. “Any sign of it?”