GUNNED (19 page)

But a couple of scenarios were starting to form in my head. Maybe the mystery man was MaryAnn’s ex-boyfriend trying to cause trouble or trying to take his daughter back before she left the hospital with her new parents. Or maybe the crazy man sneaking into the hospital in the dead of night was planned. Maybe he was nothing more than a simple diversion so someone could switch one baby for another.

And I had recently met someone who was a master at diversion. And I had also met a couple of good liars.

But which one of them wanted to switch a baby and why?

Before I pulled out of the hospital parking lot, I checked my phone to see if John had called me back. I wanted to gauge his mood before I went home. This way I could pick up his favorite dessert if he sounded annoyed. But instead, he had left me a message saying with Gerard gone, he planned to work late to catch up on a ton of paperwork, and help his partner, Jim Maroni, with a robbery/homicide in Derby, a small town next to Indian Cove also covered by the Indian Cove police department.

I knew my brother-in-law was working late as well, so I called my sister and asked if she and the kids wanted to meet me at Meme’s for dinner. Then I called Meme and she said she would get Theresa and Frances so we could brainstorm. My grandmother and her group loved helping me with cases and had come up with some good insights. With Annie and Gerard on the scene, I hadn’t had a lot of time to include my grandmother and her friends in the latest developments.

I knew everyone liked Mexican food. I stopped and picked up the makings for tacos along with several large chopped salads to share, and a large container of tortilla soup. I headed over to my grandmother’s, anxious to hash everything out.

“Twice in one day,” Meme said, as she held the door open. “This is a real treat and Frances is picking up dessert.

I helped Meme set out the food on her kitchen counter, and once everyone arrived we filled our plates and settled in the living room, leaving the kids at the kitchen table.

“Sounds like you need our help,” Frances said.

“When I left here this morning, I had a pretty good idea that the daughter did it.”

“And you don’t feel the same now?” my sister said, as she settled herself on the floor next to the coffee table.

“The daughter did what?” Henry shouted from the kitchen.

“You two need to eat,” my sister said to her son. “Then we have to go home and do homework. See what I mean? He hears everything. So, why have you changed your mind about the daughter?” Sam said, returning her attention to me.

“Oh, she’s still on my list, but now I’ve added a few more suspects.”

Meme cackled. “Good. I like it when we got a lot of suspects. Makes it more interesting trying to figure it all out.”

“Just like that game,
Clue
,” Theresa said with a wide grin.

We were really a bunch of ghouls. I wondered if this was how the police did it. Did they order out for Chinese and sit around the break room spewing out theories?

“So who else did you put on your list today, kiddo?” Meme asked.

I told them about Christine Jamison and her fiancé Hunter, and about Nurse Kathy. Then I told them about my encounter with Martha Aiello.

“Do you think my hair is the wrong color?”

Sam looked at me. “Since you’ve been putting in some highlights, I think it looks good. Why?”

“Martha said I was frumpy and needed to change my hair style, color, wear more jewelry, and pretty much get a total makeover. Maybe even a new body.” I took a big bite out of my taco sending grease down my chin.

“Who cares what she says. You look beautiful, and besides, I bet it was one of them diversion tactics. Get you feeling bad about yourself and maybe you wouldn’t think she killed Mr. Spiegel,” Meme said, echoing my original thoughts about my encounter with Martha Aiello.

I needed to talk with her again. And, considering she was so adept at the skill of diversion, I could see her orchestrating the weird man coming into the hospital at night all those years ago.

“I also stopped by to see Shelley Jamison. She’s Christine’s mother and she said that Mr. Spiegel stopped by to see her on the day he was killed. He wanted Shelley to talk Christine into having a blood test. He left and then Jeff, Shelley’s husband, came home. At some point Shelley went off to get a chicken for dinner and then Jeff had to leave to go back to work.”

“And this was the night Mr. Spiegel was killed?” Sam asked. “So they were both out and unaccounted for.”

“Uh-huh. As a matter of fact, Mr. Spiegel showed up right when Shelley got home, so it was already evening. He must have been killed not too much later after he visited Shelley. Gosh, I guess I better let John know. This might help with his timeline of events.”

“What about the nurse, Alex? Does she look like a killer?” Theresa asked.

“I don’t know. Probably not. I don’t think she switched the babies, so why would she have a reason to kill Mr. Spiegel?”

“Maybe because she knows her sister or brother-in-law did, with her knowledge, so she’s protecting her family,” Sam said, and then went back to her bowl of soup.

“Shelley said that her daughter’s biological father was a real scary guy. I wonder if he’s the crazy man who went into the hospital.”

Meme cackled. “Kiddo, this morning you were pretty sure of herself. What a difference a day makes. Now you got all these other suspects. Anyone else you need to talk to?”

“It sounds like you’ve talked to everyone except two,” Sam said.

“Two? Tomorrow Annie and I are going to talk to the brother. Who’s the other person I need to speak with?” I asked my sister.

“Make that three, then. The brother and Millie and her mom.”

“Sam, really? Millie? Judith? Come on. They couldn’t hurt anyone let alone put a bullet in someone’s head.”

“Mother love is a powerful thing. I’d kill anyone who threatened to take away my kids.”

“Really, Mom?”

No one had heard Henry come into the room.

“Henry. Go eat your dinner.”

“Don’t kill anyone Mom. I don’t want you to go to jail. Dad doesn’t know how to cook and he can never spike my hair like you do.”

My sister grabbed her little boy and smothered him with kisses. Kendall came into the room and sat by me. I wrapped my arm around her and kissed her head. She was growing so quickly. She was now in the eye-rolling stage. Anything her mother said was met with an eye roll. Sam took it in stride, but it drove me crazy.

“She’s right, kiddo. You can’t leave Millie and Judith out of your investigation,” my grandmother said.

I thought about this. Millie Chapman had lived at home until she met Reuben, fell in love, and moved in with him. And she didn’t just live at home because she couldn’t afford a place of her own. She had lived at home all those years because she had an incredibly close bond with her mother and grandmother. They were a secure unit and it was one of the things I loved about Millie. Not only was she smart and an incredible worker, but she was raised right. Millie and I had already talked about the Spiegels and I felt confident that she wasn’t involved, but I thought what my sister said about the power of a mother’s love was spot on. I knew I could knock Millie off my list of suspects. If she had any ideas about killing someone, it would be Jackie Spiegel, and so far she hadn’t done that. But what about Judith? She was as crazy about Millie as I was about Henry and Kendall, and I knew deep down, if they were in any kind of danger, I would do anything to protect them.

But still…these were all grown women who were under no obligation to pay any attention to Mr. Spiegel’s claim. All they had to do was tell him to take a hike, which, in fact, is pretty much what everyone had done. So why did he get killed? I still thought Andrea had the most to lose. And something else. I felt I was missing a clue; like something had already been dropped in my lap and I didn’t see it.

“Earth to Alex,” Sam said, reaching over and poking me in the arm.

“I know that look,” my grandmother said. “You’ve got something going on in your head.”

“I think we’re missing something. Maybe the killing had absolutely nothing at all to do with a baby being switched.” I looked around the room. Everyone just stared at me obviously waiting for me to drop some big clue or solve the crime right there and then, but I had nothing.
Bupkis
.

Sam shrugged. “You still need to talk to Judith, if for no other reason than to cross her off your list once and for all.”

Sam was right. I had been remiss in not speaking with Judith sooner. Did she even own a gun? I had no idea. But tomorrow morning, before Annie and I headed out to speak with Jerry Spiegel, we would stop off at the doctor’s office where Judith Chapman worked and see exactly how she felt about Sheldon Spiegel.

The last several days of driving around or sitting behind my desk had taken its toll on my body. And then there were all the desserts I had been eating. I usually reserved dessert for the weekends, but I wanted to be a proper hostess to my guests. I needed to do something physical. After breakfast, Annie and I headed over to the coast for a walk along the boardwalk that connected the city’s two main beaches. I figured the outing would accomplish two things—give us some much needed exercise and constitute a sightseeing opportunity for Annie. After all, I didn’t want her entire trip to be all about the murder, though she didn’t seem to mind.

It was cold and gray by the coast and we pulled on gloves once we hit the beach.

“We had such a nice time in Rhode Island, but Gerard was upset to have missed all the excitement,” Annie said.

John and his partner had apprehended their suspect, but only after John shot the man. It wasn’t a fatal shot and it wasn’t meant to be. After the man had robbed a jewelry store and killed the owner, he had fled to an apartment where his girlfriend lived. He tried to get away using her as a shield and that was when John took him down with a shot to the arm. It was weird thinking of my husband shooting someone. He was a calm, kind man and sometimes I thought I was better off not knowing what went on at his job or in the deep dark areas of his brain.

“After our walk, we’ll head over to see Judith before we go to Danbury to speak with the brother.”

“
Bon
. I know Judith is a good friend, but we cannot leave any stone untouched,” Annie said in her sensible tone.

“I think you mean unturned.”

“Yes. Unturned. We must turn over everything and perhaps something will crawl out.”

It felt good to be out in the cool ocean air, walking at a very brisk pace. I couldn’t image living anywhere without a coast line. What did all those people in the middle do when they needed to clear their minds? Maybe walking through a field of corn or tending to livestock was restorative as well. Yeah, right. Hello, my name is Alex Harris Van der Burg, and I’m an ocean snob.

My thoughts of walking through fields of corn or swaying wheat were interrupted by something jumping at my legs, and when I looked down, I saw Riley, my parents’ adorable Welsh terrier.

“What are you doing here, little monkey?” I leaned down and gave Riley a kiss on his head. Initially my mother took the dog in with the hope of finding him a good home, but somehow the little guy had finagled his way into our hearts and he was currently enjoying a great life courtesy of my parents.

“We thought that was you up ahead, and then Riley saw you and we couldn’t control him anymore,” my father said. He and my mother came up alongside Annie and me. “Annie, how’s your vacation going? Are you having a good time?”

“I am having a wonderful time. New England is a special place. It will be very hard to leave, but we will be back again, I am sure.”

“I talked to your sister this morning,” my mother began, as we all started to walk again. “She said you had quite a productive day yesterday. From what she told me, I think something weird was going on at that hospital. It’s too much of a coincidence that that man shows up out of the blue, making all that commotion. Something fishy there.  And Christine had a lot to lose if it turned out she was Mr. Spiegel’s daughter. Her parents need further investigation. And so does Martha Aiello. She’s something, that one. I don’t like her one bit, and God help New Haven if she becomes mayor. And don’t you listen to a word she says about the way you dress. You always look lovely, dear, and your hair is just adorable.”

Annie and I looked at each other.

“Who are you and what have you done with Mable Harris?” I asked my mother. It seemed she had finally come to terms with our sleuthing. Truth was I knew she would. She’s as nosy as the rest of us, but she’s a mom and has to do her due diligence to make sure I’m safe. The four of us continued walking along the boardwalk with Riley sniffing at every plant along the way.

“Samantha said you planned to talk with Judith today,” Mom said. “I don’t like it, but I guess you have to. Can’t play favorites. I just hope she and Millie aren’t involved. Riley, leave that bag alone. Why do people litter? There are plenty of trash cans around.”

“We’re going to head over to talk with Judith as soon as we finish our walk, and then we’re going to Danbury to talk with the brother.”

My mother nodded. “Sounds good. He and his brother’s wife had that affair and some wounds never heal. Maybe he held a grudge all these years because Jackie went back to Sheldon. Plus, maybe Andrea really was his daughter and he didn’t want it to come out. I know,” my mother held up her hand when I started to protest, “but Jackie could be lying about the DNA not being a match to anyone in the family. Maybe it matched Jerry.”

I looked at my mother and smiled. “Well, look at you all caught up on the case and full of advice, but the whole DNA thing is true. John checked with the doctor. Andrea Spiegel is not the biological child of Jackie and Sheldon, and she’s not the daughter of Jerry either. Unless…”

“Unless, what, Alex?” Annie asked.

“Unless Jerry and Sheldon aren’t real brothers. I mean, maybe one was adopted?”