GUNNED (2 page)

“Maybe. Or maybe she hired someone to do it for her.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any chance you could solve this murder by tomorrow, say around noonish?”

John laughed. “I seriously doubt it, but stranger things have happened. Besides, it’s probably only fair that I return the gift and have a red hot murder waiting for Gerard.”

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. “I was afraid of that.”

Who was I kidding? I liked a good murder same as the next guy. The only problem I could see was how would I be able to work the case with house guests? It was a given Gerard would jump right in and go off with John every day, but what was I going to do with Annie? I had a few things planned, and my entire family wanted to meet her, but I knew myself too well. There was no way I could keep from getting involved in this murder. I mean, the man died after talking to me. I was asked to identify the body. It didn’t get any more involved than that. With any luck Annie might like bingo, and I could send her off with my grandmother and her gang of cotton-haired cohorts a couple of times.

I put the murder out of my mind while I tried to get some work done. With our guests arriving in a few hours, I needed to finish up a few things and then would leave the day-to-day stuff in the very capable hands of Millie and Marla. Sam would also be working and I could stop by the office if need be during Gerard and Annie’s visit. They would be arriving in their own car, rented up in Boston after their visit with some friends in the area, and they had been to New England numerous times. I had a feeling they would be very self sufficient, and if I got really busy, I could send them off for a day of sightseeing, but still, I wanted to be a good hostess and spend as much time with them as I could.

An hour and a half later I felt quite pleased with myself. I put the finishing touches on a speech I would be giving next month at a career fair, and pushed away from my desk, ready for another cup of tea. I drink a lot of tea. It started when I was little. My mother would give me a cup of tea every night with a light snack before bed. My grandmother tried to get me hooked on her strong Italian coffee, but the one and only spoonful she fed to me as a child turned me off the stuff, and since then I’ve never tried coffee again. Ever. Have no idea how to make it, and no interest in getting to know coffee better. Tea is just my thing.

I had just carried a steaming mug of Earl Grey, my tea of choice, back to my desk when a woman walked into my office, closely followed by Millie and Marla. They stood in the doorway like two sentries; Millie, with her dark hair and pale skin, and Marla, a tall woman in her early fifties, with beautiful skin the color of milk chocolate.

“Sorry, Alex,” Millie began. “We tried to stop her, but she insisted on speaking with you directly.

“Has my husband been to see you?” the woman asked. I judged her to be in her early sixties. She had dark brown hair, worn shoulder length in a similar style to Millie’s. She was medium height and weight, if a little heavy in the hips, and wore a black skirt, cream blouse and a black cardigan. “Has he been here? I told him not to come but does he listen? Has he ever listened? Lorraine and I go off for a getaway and I come home to find him gone. Is it too much to ask that he just wait until I get home? I know he was here.”

Sam had come down the hall at the sound of all the commotion, and stood in the doorway with Millie and Marla.

The woman was clearly frantic and probably had us confused with another company. “Why don’t you have a seat and we can sort this all out, Mrs.—?”

“Spiegel. Jackie Spiegel.”

Maybe she wasn’t as rattled as I had thought.

“Spiegel, did you say? Millie, could you get Mrs. Spiegel a cup of coffee or maybe a water?” I looked at Jackie Spiegel.

“A cup of coffee would be nice. A bit of sugar, no milk. Make sure it’s fresh brewed.” She turned and looked at Millie for a long moment, taking her in from head to toe.

Millie gave me a what-the-hell look and then left to get the coffee.

“She’ll bring that right in. Mrs. Spiegel, why don’t you tell me what this is all about?”

Millie came back with the coffee and then took up her sentry position just outside the door where Sam and Marla still stood.

“It’s my husband, Sheldon. The
putz
. I knew I shouldn’t have gone away for most of a week and left him alone.” Mrs. Spiegel shook her head. “But I do it every year. The man couldn’t wait to have a crisis until I got back? He promised he would just forget all this foolishness. The
kvetching
. All he does is
kvetch
. It’s enough to drive a person crazy. He’s upsetting our daughter. Causing arguments. You see, I just had to get away before I killed him. My friend, Lorraine, and I have a rule. When we go on our annual retreat, we turn off our phones. Once a year a little peace and quiet. Then I get home and see all these messages on my phone from my brother-in-law, so I knew Sheldon was here. He’s gotta be driving Jerry nuts, too.”

The woman obviously didn’t know that her husband was dead and I didn’t want to be the one to tell her. I needed to call John. Let the police be the bearer of bad news.

“Have you spoken to your brother-in-law yet?” I asked.

Mrs. Spiegel shook her head. “No. Not yet. I got the first flight this morning and rented a car. I figured if Sheldon was anywhere it would be here.”

“Here? Why would he be here?” I looked over Mrs. Spiegel’s shoulder at the group standing in the hall and shrugged. What the hell was going on?

“Do you have anything to nosh? Some crackers? A bagel? They give you nothing on planes these days. Still charge the same, more, actually, but nothing to eat. Nothing’s like it used to be.” Mrs. Spiegel smoothed down her skirt then crossed her arms in front of her.

I started to say something to Millie, our intrepid office manager, but she was already headed down the hall to the kitchen. She came back with some crackers and cheese a minute later and placed a plate on my desk. She smiled at Mrs. Spiegel, and then rejoined the group by the door.

Mrs. Spiegel kept her eyes on Millie the entire time. “Millie, is it? You look like a nice girl.”

“Yes, she’s a very nice woman, Mrs. Spiegel,” I said, trying to bring the conversation back on track, though I wasn’t completely clear as to what track that was. “You were going to tell me why you thought Mr. Spiegel might have stopped here.”

Jackie Spiegel took a bite of cracker and brushed the crumbs off her skirt. “This is good. Some cream cheese would have been nice, a little lox, but it’s good. Just what I needed.”

“And your husband, Mrs. Spiegel?” I forced a smile on my face and kept my tone even.

“I suppose it’s all my fault. I had breast cancer. I’m fine,” she said quickly, and waved her hand when I started to offer my sympathies. “My mother had it and my sister. So my daughter decided to get checked like that celebrity did because her mother had cancer and died from it. My daughter wanted to see if she was predisposed to get it. I told her not to. Why live with that over your head? Who needs that kind of stress? If she got sick, we’d deal with it, but no. She wanted to know, so she had the tests. She’s not predisposed. We were thrilled. Then the doctor did some more tests. Always with the tests.”

“And they found something? They made a mistake with the first test?” I leaned forward on my desk. This was interesting, but I didn’t see how it could possibly end with a bullet to the forehead of Mr. Spiegel. And what the heck was going on with this woman’s fascination with Millie?

“Yes, they found something all right. I didn’t believe it. I fired that
schmegeggy
of a doctor. He was making my Andrea crazy. I told her enough, but she went somewhere else. They did all the tests again and they came back with the same result.”

“And what result was that, Mrs. Spiegel?”

Sam and Marla had stepped into the office and were now leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the door from where Millie had taken up her position.

Mrs. Spiegel wiped a tear with a tissue she took from the box on my desk. “That our Andrea wasn’t our daughter. I mean, of course she was our daughter. We brought her home from the hospital and raised her. Everyone says she’s just like me. But the DNA was wrong. They told us she wasn’t ours. I didn’t care. Who cares? She’s our daughter. Has been for twenty-nine years.”

Twenty-nine years? Uh-oh. This wasn’t looking good.

“But Sheldon was obsessed. He started doing all this research. It hurt my daughter. I told him, who cares what the doctors say, and isn’t it a good thing that she won’t get breast cancer? But the man wanted to know what was going on. My Sheldon, he’s a smart one, you know what I mean, but dumb. No common sense is what my mother said.”

“And he came here? Why?” But I was pretty sure I knew why Sheldon Spiegel had come to this office on Monday, and why he had kept looking around like he was waiting for someone. Because that’s exactly what he was doing.

“Because he found our real daughter.” Mrs. Spiegel tapped the nail of her index finger on my desk several times. “I told him our real daughter was in New York, with her husband and our granddaughter, but he wouldn’t listen. So he
schlepped
up here to meet his real child while I was away.”

Sam pushed away from the wall. “And who is your real daughter, Mrs. Spiegel?”

Jackie Spiegel turned to look at Sam and then turned her head and stared at Millie. “It’s her. The one with my hair. She’s our daughter. The one with the same DNA.”

Millie’s pale skin went pure white. “Wait…What? I’m your daughter? My name’s Millie Spiegel?
Oy Vey
.”

And then she fainted.

No one heard John and Gerard and Annie arrive. We were all huddled over Millie. Marla ran to the kitchen and came back with a paper towel drenched in cold water. I kept patting Millie’s hand and calling her name. I wasn’t overly concerned at this point. Millie had fainted before, something to do with low blood pressure, but still.

“What’s going on? Oh, God, is Millie okay?” John pushed by me and took Millie’s wrist, checking her pulse. Then he touched her cheek and kept saying her name over and over.

I looked up and saw Gerard and Annie. “Oh, my gosh! You’re here.” I jumped up and gave Annie a big hug and then turned toward Gerard and gave him one as well, while Sam greeted Annie and introduced her to Marla.

“Excuse me. Hello?! My daughter should lie here while you’re having a party?” Mrs. Spiegel said, and we all turned.

“No, of course not. I’m so sorry. Millie. Millie, are you okay?” I said, once again kneeling by Millie’s side.

“Her daughter? What the hell is going on here, Alex?” John asked.

I gritted my teeth and shook my head.

“Alex, what happened? Why am I on the floor?”

“Oh, Millie, you’re going to be okay. You fainted. Remember?”

Millie shut her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. “I did?” She sat up and looked around the room. Her eyes came to rest on Mrs. Spiegel. “Oh, no. I’m not going with her. Alex, she is not my mother. She’s crazy. You’re crazy,” Millie said directly to Jackie Spiegel.

I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Spiegel. Millie, you’re not going anywhere. This is all a horrible mistake. Besides, you’re a grown woman. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

John stood up and then helped Millie up. Sam pushed a chair over and Millie sat down and then scooted the chair a few inches away from Mrs. Spiegel.

“Okay, would someone please tell me what’s going on?”

“John, this is Jackie Spiegel. Mrs. Sheldon Spiegel. Mrs. Spiegel, this is my husband, Detective John Van der Burg of the Indian Cove Police.”

“Mrs. Spiegel, we’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”

“Well, good, because I’m looking for my husband. He was headed here and I haven’t heard from him since. Maybe you can help me find him.”

John glanced at me. “Alex, is there somewhere I can speak with Mrs. Spiegel in private?”

“What do you mean, in private? What’s going on? Where’s Sheldon? What the hell has he done now? And anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of my daughter,” Jackie Spiegel said, with a nod in Millie’s direction.

Millie jumped up from her chair. “You’re crazy! Do you hear me? Crazy!”

I sighed. “Mrs. Spiegel, why don’t you go with Detective Van der Burg. We’ll get you another cup of coffee. Or maybe a tea. A tea would be good right about now.” Millie looked at me and mouthed the words, no way. “I’ll get you a cup of tea and bring it in. Would you like that? And how about some more crackers and cheese?”

“No!” Jackie Spiegel was on her feet. “I want to know where Sheldon is. What the hell has he done? The man’s a
putz
. Did I tell you he’s a
putz
? My mother warned me. Don’t marry that
schmuck
, she said.”

I clasped my hands together and looked at John with a pleading look.

“Have a seat, Mrs. Spiegel,” John said.

Millie gave the widow a disgusted look and went to stand with the audience by the wall. My little office was very crowded.

John sat down in the seat Millie had vacated and moved it closer to Mrs. Spiegel. “I’m sorry to inform you, but your husband was killed some time on Tuesday.”

“Killed? What do you mean he was killed? Someone hurt my sweet Sheldon?”

“I’m afraid so, Mrs. Spiegel. He was shot.”

“Shot! Sheldon was murdered?”

“Yes, he was. I’m so sorry,” John said in a soft voice.

Jackie Spiegel let out a wail to equal that of any banshee, and then she fainted. Marla ran back to the kitchen for another cold towel. My sister hung her head and shook it back and forth, and Millie crossed her arms and put a scowl on her face.

Over in the corner, Gerard Willix, Belgian police detective extraordinaire, a man who loved a good murder as much as I did, clapped his hands together, put a smile on his face and said, “
eh bien
!”