Gin Jones - Helen Binney 01 - A Dose of Death (11 page)

“
Why would you need a defense?” Laura said.

Lily answered her sister.
“Because Aunt Helen should be the prime suspect in Melissa’s murder.”

Laura gasped.
“Aunt Helen didn’t kill Melissa. She wouldn’t kill anyone.”

“
You and I know that,” Lily said, “but the police don’t. They
should
suspect her.”

“
That’s it, exactly,” Helen said. “They crossed me off the list without even questioning me, as if I didn’t exist.”

“
But why would they think you killed her?” Laura said.

“
It just makes sense,” Helen said. “She died on my property, which is fairly isolated. I’m the one who found her. I made it pretty clear that I disliked her. Why wouldn’t I be a suspect?”

“
You didn’t have any reason to kill her,” Laura said. “She was helping you. She was your nurse.”

Lily was nodding thoughtfully.
“A nurse that you didn’t want. But if there was a really good reason to get rid of her, you would have told us, and we’d have cancelled the contract ourselves.”

“
You were out of town when things got bad,” Helen said. “Canceling the contract wouldn’t have stopped her, so I did what I had to do. I filed for a restraining order against her the day before she died.”

“
A restraining order?” Laura said. “How bad was she?”

Helen wasn
‘t willing to admit Melissa had practically locked her in her room and Helen had been unable to stop her. It sounded so pathetic. And the smaller incidents just made her sound paranoid. She’d told the girls about them before, but even she hadn’t considered them all that serious at the time. Annoying, but not enough to justify breaching a contract, let alone get a restraining order.

Helen settled for saying,
“She bugged me.”

“
Everyone bugs you,” said Lily.

“
So why does everyone keep on bugging me, after I ask them to stop?” Helen said. “I obviously make it clear enough that I want to be left alone. Judge Nolan even took judicial notice of the fact that I hate everyone, for goodness sake.”

“
You’ve never gotten a restraining order in the past,” Lily said. “There must have been more to the situation with Melissa than you’re telling us.”

Helen shrugged.
“I asked her to leave, and she wouldn’t, so I filed for a restraining order.”

“
Then you had no reason to kill Melissa,” Lily said. “You had a restraining order against her, and you could have had her arrested for trespassing or breach of the court order. You didn’t need to kill her.”

“
It wasn’t that simple,” Helen said. “The judge refused to issue the restraining order.”

“
So you decided to kill her instead,” Lily said with obvious sarcasm. “I don’t believe it. I don’t think you even dislike people as much as you claim, and you certainly wouldn’t kill someone just because she came to visit you. Otherwise, Laura and I would have been murdered in our sleep a long time ago.”

“
You and Laura don’t play the radio at top volume when you visit,” Helen said. “And when I insist, you leave.”

“
Is that a hint?” Lily said.

“
No,” Helen said. “I’m glad you’re both here. I wanted to ask you about Melissa’s background. I assume you checked her references.”

“
Of course,” Lily said.

“
Do you still have copies?”

“
You didn’t care enough to read them when she was alive. Why do you want them now?”

“
I’m curious,” Helen said. “I’d like to talk to some of her other patients.”

“
Somehow, I don’t think you’re feeling nostalgic,” Lily said. “Talk to them about what?”

“
About their motives to kill her,” Helen said. “Or who else might want her dead.”

“
Shouldn’t you leave that to the police?” Laura said. “Howie told me not to worry too much about you, that they’d take care of everything.”

“
The police are never going to find Melissa’s killer. They’re limiting their search to one specific person, and he didn’t do it.”

“
I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually,” Laura said.

Perhaps, but then Helen would never have the satisfaction of making Detective Peterson acknowledge that she was a competent human being, capable of every bit as much violence as the next person. Of course, Laura and Lily weren
‘t likely to be sympathetic to that argument. Instead, Helen said, “The sooner we can convince them it’s not the burglar, the sooner they’ll find the real culprit. I won’t feel safe until then.”

“
You could move back to Boston,” Lily said.

“
Or come visit Howie and me for a while,” Laura said.

“
That’s not necessary.” If Melissa hadn’t driven Helen into the arms of her nieces while she was alive, then some two-bit criminal certainly wouldn’t do it. “I’d just like to take a look at Melissa’s references. If there’s anything in there that will help the police, then I’ll pass it along to them.”

“
You promise?” Lily said. “You won’t interfere?”

Helen raised her eyebrows.
“Do I ever interfere with anything?”

Lily laughed.
“You’ve done nothing
but
interfere for the past twenty years. It was practically your job description in the governor’s mansion.”

“
You’re the only one who ever noticed, though,” Helen said. “I promise no one will notice anything I do now, either.”

Lily opened her laptop.
“I’m emailing you the reference letters now. But don’t think I’ve forgotten about checking up on your lawyer. I’ll be calling him first thing tomorrow.”

Lily would vet him far better than Helen herself had done. Fortunately, Helen was confident his credentials would hold up to scrutiny.
“Just don’t talk to him for too long. He’s charging me by the hour, and he’s not cheap.”

Jack had the luxury car idling in Helen’s driveway the next morning, as requested, a few minutes before the replacement nurse was scheduled to arrive. The doorbell rang, reminding Helen that she wanted to ask Jack if he knew any electricians who could disconnect the doorbell. Maybe create a switch so she could turn it back on if she was expecting company she actually wanted to see.

Helen peered through the windows to check on her visitor. A short, redheaded woman stood on the porch, clutching an oversized leather purse to her chest. It was big enough to hold a couple six-packs of soda, but the woman didn
‘t look super-caffeinated, just anxious. Barely old enough to have graduated from nursing school, permanent worry lines were already forming across her forehead.

Today
‘s anxiety was probably just because a murder had happened a few feet from where she was standing, rather than because she considered her patient a force to be reckoned with. She was about to find out how wrong she was.

Helen limped back to her desk to grab Melissa
‘s reference letters she wanted to discuss with Tate. Returning to the front door, she glanced at the cane hanging from the front doorknob. It was the ugly back-up one, since she still hadn’t found the one she’d lost. It was probably at the law office, since there weren’t any other places she could recall visiting right before it disappeared. With a little luck, she’d be able to retrieve it today, and she wouldn’t need to use the back-up one any longer. In fact, she could manage without any cane at all until she got to Tate’s office today.

She stepped outside and quickly closed the door behind herself. On her way past the nurse, she said,
“You must be Rebecca. The agency said you’d be here this morning.”

“
Where are you going?” Rebecca said.

“
I’ll be back after your shift is over,” Helen said from the bottom of the stairs. “You might as well go home now, but if you want to spend your time here, you can make yourself comfortable on the back deck. It’s a beautiful day, and I even left some snacks and bottles of water on the table out there for you. Just watch out for the police tape.”

Helen didn
‘t wait for an answer, but headed off to the waiting Town Car, where Jack was emerging with his usual perfect timing to open the back door for her. Once she was inside and he was behind the wheel again, Helen allowed herself to look through the back window at Rebecca. The woman was still standing on the front porch, one arm half-raised, as if uncertain whether to try to call her patient back or politely wave farewell. Rebecca needed some lessons in assertiveness, or she’d have all her patients running roughshod over her.

Not my problem
, Helen thought.
Trying to be nice is what got me stuck with Melissa and if I’d gotten rid of her right away, I wouldn’t have ended up with a dead body in my yard.
Helen resolutely turned away from the confused young woman on her porch and told Jack, “The print shop, please. And then the lawyer’s office.”   

“
You want me to get rid of the new nurse for you while you’re meeting with Tate?” he said. “I could take care of her and be back in time to pick you up.”

“
No, thank you.” Jack could talk like a tough guy, but as far as she could tell, he was far more likely to vanquish the virtual enemies in his smartphone’s video games than any real, live unwanted people. He complained about his ungrateful passengers, but he couldn’t do anything about them, any more than he could get rid of Helen’s nurse. Besides, even if he could do something about Rebecca, it wasn’t necessary. The nursing agency would stop sending their employees as soon as Tate convinced them there wasn’t going to be any payment for their services. “I’ve got it under control.”

“
If the situation changes, you’ve got my number.”

She patted her cell phone.
“It’s right here.”

After a quick stop at the print shop to pick up the crime scene photographs she
‘d uploaded yesterday for printing in better resolution than her home printer could manage, Jack parked in front of the law firm. She declined Jack’s offer of an escort into the building, and left him to his video games.

As soon as she started up the front walk, Helen heard the sound of the lathe being used in the garage behind the law offices, and decided to talk to him first, before warning Adam that Lily was going to call to check on their credentials. The garage door was open, and Tate stood with his back to it, bent over the lathe. She didn
‘t want to startle him, so she walked around to stand in front of him and waited for him to notice her.

After a few minutes, Tate looked up, sighed
, and turned off the motor. He pushed his safety goggles up to the top of his head, pulled off the ear protection, and dropped down into his director’s chair. He didn’t offer her a seat of her own, and she wasn’t about to ask for one.

“
I was wondering if you’d seen my cane?” she said. “I thought I might have left it here.”

“
It’s not out here. I’d have noticed if I’d suddenly acquired a new piece of wood,” he said. “You’d have to ask Adam if it’s in the law offices.”

“
Because you’re retired,” Helen said. “That reminds me. I was wondering why you didn’t quit your job before now if you found it so unfulfilling.”

“
Being in jail would have been more annoying than practicing law.”

“
They can’t send you to jail for changing careers.”

“
No, but if I’d quit my job, I’d have ended up in jail for nonpayment of alimony.”

“
There are other ways to get money.”

“
Robbing a bank would have landed me in jail for even longer than nonpayment of alimony.”

“
Not if you had a good lawyer.”

“
And that’s where it gets tricky. I’m the best defense lawyer I could afford, but you know what they say about a person having a fool for a client if he represents himself.” He finally seemed to notice the papers in Helen’s hand, and gave them a look that suggested he thought they were going to burst into flame and destroy his workshop. “What are those?”

She tossed the copies of Melissa
‘s references on top of the sawdust on the workshop table. “Melissa’s reference letters.”

“
It’s a bit late now, to be inquiring into whether she was any good at her job.”

“
I know more than I ever wanted to know about her work skills and shortcomings,” Helen said. “What I’m wondering is whether any of her previous patients had a reason to kill her.”

“
I doubt they’d mention it in a letter praising her.”

“
That’s why I’m planning to go talk to them in person,” Helen said. “Find out what they really thought of her. Make sure they actually wrote these letters. That sort of thing.”

“
Then what are you doing here interrupting my retirement again?” he said. “I’m sure I never wrote her a reference. I never even met the woman.”

“
You know how to talk to witnesses.”

His eyebrows rose.
“You expect me to go with you to the interviews?”

“
I wouldn’t dream of taking you away from your woodworking.” She’d hoped he might have insisted on doing the interviews himself, as a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of an untrained person conducting a cross-examination, but she’d known it was a long shot, so she wasn’t terribly disappointed when he didn’t take the bait. “I’d like you to teach me how to examine a witness.”

“
It takes years of practice to get it right.”

“
I don’t have that much time,” Helen said. “I just need to know the basics. And then I’ll leave you to your work here.”

“
Is that what it takes to get rid of you?”

“
That, or murdering me.”

“
No more murders.” Tate pulled his safety goggles off and brushed sawdust out of his hair. “For the sort of questioning you’re doing, it’s a little different from what you’d do in court. But you can’t just go barging in there without a plan. You need to know as much as possible about the witnesses before you talk to them, so you’ll notice if their answers don’t sound quite right. They don’t usually lie outright, just sort of re-imagine their story in ways that make them feel better about themselves. I interviewed one guy who was clocked at over a hundred miles an hour on the highway but still denied he was close to forty miles over the speed limit, because, really, everyone goes eighty on that road, and the cops allow a ten-mile-an-hour leeway, and that meant he could go ninety, so, really, he was only fifteen miles over the speed limit. His speed was a pretty simple fact, but if I hadn’t already known he was clocked at a hundred-plus miles per hour, he might have led me to believe he was only going eighty. He wouldn’t have been lying, exactly, just putting his own spin on it.”

“
I don’t have time to do that kind of research. I’ve read the reference letters, but they don’t really say anything.” She’d read them carefully last night, looking for a Perry Mason moment, a tidbit that would give her an opportunity to point out inconsistencies and demand an explanation. Or a Sherlock Holmes moment, when some tiny detail would lead her to a huge epiphany. All she’d found was generic praise, too vague to pin down inconsistencies, too broad to contain any details. The same clichés showed up in at least half of the letters, although the rest of the language was varied enough that she doubted they’d all been written by the same person. Maybe that was her one insight, she thought: the letters had been dashed off, using the most obvious phrases. They were perfunctory, not passionate. None of them felt like the writer had truly cared one way or another about Melissa. 

“
I don’t even know where to start to find out more about them,” she said, “not without provoking Judge Nolan to reconsider her stance on restraining orders, with me as the one being restrained.”

Tate bent forward to take the papers from the table. He flipped past Melissa
‘s resume to the cover sheet listing the references. “This one is the father of the mayor’s husband,” he said, pointing to the first name. He ran his finger down the page, stopping beside each name. “She’s the mother of your favorite cop, Detective Peterson. And I believe this one is somehow related to Geoff Loring. His uncle, I think.”

“
All pillars of the community,” Helen said glumly. “The police aren’t likely to be interested in arresting any of them, not when they have a perfectly good suspect who was a petty criminal. And I bet the writers of the references are all saintly role models who would never even think a violent thought, let alone act on one.”

“
I wouldn’t go quite that far,” Tate said, “but as far as I know, they’re pretty clean. I’ve never represented any of them in a criminal case, anyway.”

“
Someone
must have had a reason to kill Melissa.”

“
Besides the burglar,” he said. “And you, of course.”

Helen nodded.

“What about her other patients? The ones who didn’t write reference letters for her? She must have had hundreds of patients over the years, and there are only a dozen names here.”

“
I haven’t heard of any patients who disliked her,” Helen said. “The owner of the nursing agency told me everyone was satisfied with her work, and she’d been at her previous job for decades.”

“
He could have lied.”

“
Or simply refused to hear any complaints, the way he ignored me.” Helen could easily imagine Pierce being intentionally blind to Melissa’s faults. “But if there were any serious problems, there would have been at least a few written complaints that he couldn’t ignore. There wasn’t anything in Melissa’s official records. I’m sure of that much. Lily did the hiring, and she always does her homework. She would have checked out both the agency and Melissa herself.”

“
Melissa worked at the Wharton Nursing Home, didn’t she?” Tate flipped back to the resume on top of the pile of references. “In fact, that’s probably where she met her references. Lots of retired town officials there.” 

“
More pillars of the community,” Helen said. “Kind of ruins my theory that the killer might have been a prior patient.”

“
Some patients are actually grateful for assistance, you know.”

“
Not when Melissa’s the one offering it,” Helen said. “I may be a hermit, but I’m not usually violent, and she made me so angry that all I cared about was making her go away. She managed to get me that furious in just a few visits, working with me only part-time, in my own home. It would have been much worse if I’d been trapped in a nursing home, imprisoned with her forty hours a week, complaining about her without anyone listening. In those circumstances, murder might seem like a reasonable option.”

“
If a patient killed her, how’d he get out of the nursing home to do it? He couldn’t have been all that stuck in his room if he could follow Melissa all the way out to the edge of town where you live.”