Heaven Preserve Us (23 page)

Erin trudged to the stairs. "Remember that you're sleeping in
my room," Meghan said. Her daughter mumbled something in response, still half asleep.

Once they were both out of earshot, I grabbed Meghan's arm
and said, "I have to talk to you."

She raised her eyebrows and waited.

"There is no Kelly O'Connell."

Now she just looked puzzled. "Of course there is. He's using
our bathroom right now."

"He doesn't exist. No driver's license, no address, no car registration, no phone number."

"Well what do you expect? He just moved here. Jeez, will you
leave the poor guy alone?"

"But he moved from Seattle, right? There's no record of him
anywhere in Washington State. He isn't who he says he is."

She blinked, then rallied. "Exactly how is it that you know
this?"

"I asked Barr to find out some more about him. He called one
of his friends at work."

"You ... you asked ... how dare you?"

"Hey. He was acting suspicious the other night, at HH."

"So were you!"

"And we don't know anything about him. So go ahead and get
mad at me. And at Barr, if you want. I don't care. But pay attention. Your boyfriend isn't who he says he is. Don't you want to
know why that is? Doesn't it make you wonder what else he might
be lying about?"

Her eyes shifted over my shoulder and widened. My stomach
dropped. Slowly, I turned to find the individual in question standing in the doorway behind me. Barr appeared behind him, looming a good five inches over his head.

Kelly stiffened, but didn't turn around. "Maybe we should find
a place to sit down," he said.

"Living room." Meghan's words were clipped.

The three of us trooped in behind her. Kelly joined Meghan on
the sofa, but she scooted away to put a little distance between
them. Barr sank into my favorite big cushy chair, and I stood by
the fireplace. Kelly looked around at each of us, finishing with
Meghan. She looked resigned and sad. I felt awful for her. It wasn't
her fault she had such terrible luck with men.

"I'm not from Seattle," he said.

"No kidding," I said.

Meghan glared at me. "Let him explain."

I shrugged. Barr watched the drama without comment.

Kelly took a deep breath. "I'm actually from New Jersey. I'm an
investigator, brought in by the Heaven Foundation to find out
what Philip Heaven was doing with the money he was siphoning
from Heaven House."

Oh. Wow.

Barr asked, "Is your name really Kelly O'Connell?"

"It is. And before you ask, no, I'm not licensed to officially investigate anything here. You could probably do something with
that if you wanted. I know that. But I think the board would be
happy to agree that I'm simply doing them a favor."

So they were paying him under the table and hoping to keep it
quiet.

I thought about the bank statements and the utility shut-off
notices I'd found in Philip's apartment. "I don't understand why
Philip would need to steal from Heaven House. It was supposed to
be his baby. And he had a trust fund, didn't he? Not exactly hurting for money."

"It wasn't enough. The trust fund gave him an allowance, but
not a huge one. His grandfather didn't want him to be dependent
on it, wanted to give him an appreciation of money, not take it for
granted. You know, I spent some time with him, and I believe he
genuinely wanted Heaven House to be a success at first. He didn't
have a clue how to make that happen, though. Once he saw it failing, I think he gave up and began treating the money the foundation provided as his own."
"

I take it this had been going on for a while," Barr said.

Meghan sat slumped in the corner of the sofa, and Kelly kept
shuttling his gaze toward her. But he answered. "The foundation
thought everything was fine. Then they started getting complaints.
Finally Heaven's cousin, Jude Carmichael, contacted the board two
months ago, and they learned many of the programs Philip had
delineated in his reports to them were either failing or never got
off the ground in the first place."

"Did Jude know you were investigating Philip?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No one did. I was just another volunteer.
One that happened to get pretty close to the boss."

"Did you find the money?" Barr asked.

Kelly sighed. "No. It seems he spent most of it."

"Did you kill him?" I asked.

"What?"

"Sophie Mae!" Meghan, however upset she was with her new
beau, was aghast that I'd ask such a thing. Even Barr looked surprised, and a little amused.

I held up my palms. "Well, you came out here as a kind of fixer,
right? To save face for the foundation, take care of a family problem for them, and find the money Philip had squirreled away if
any was left."

Kelly let out a big, easy laugh. "I think you've seen a few too
many episodes of The Sopranos. Just because I'm from New Jersey
doesn't mean I'm a hit man." He snorted out another laugh. "Murder by botulism poisoning. I love it."

His amusement faded when he saw none of us were smiling.
"Really?" Narrowing his eyes at Barr, he asked, "The botulism
wasn't an accident?"

"There's no official investigation at this point," Barr said. "But
there are some suspicious circumstances that warrant looking
into. Philip received a threat. More than one, I understand, but
one in particular that worried him enough to consult me on a
semi-official basis. He mentioned it to some other people, as well,
but didn't say who it was from."

Kelly looked thoughtful. "Huh"

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would
you?" I asked.

"I might. I just might."

We all waited. After a several seconds of silence he seemed to
make a decision. "Philip was having an affair."

I grimaced. "With Maryjake Dreggle?"

Meghan's jaw dropped.

He nodded. "So that's not news to you."

She said, "Well, it's sure news to me. Barr?"

He shot me a questioning look. "I had no idea."

I paced back and forth in front of the fire. "I saw her react to
Philip's illness the day he died. It wasn't exactly the reaction of an
employee. But I couldn't be sure."

"Well, I'm sure," Kelly said. "I saw them together. And then after
he died I went up to his office and found a letter in Philip's desk
from James Dreggle. He knew about the affair, and he warned
Philip off in no uncertain terms."

"Were you there on Thursday night?"

He blinked. Realization dawned on his face. "That was you in
the window? What were you doing there in the middle of the
night?"

I gave a little shrug. Meghan looked vaguely satisfied.

"Do you have the letter?" Barr asked. I could see his energy was
fading.

"I'll bring it to you tomorrow." Kelly turned to Meghan. "When
I came out to see what was going on with Heaven House, I met
you and found myself in the difficult position of having to lie to
you about why I was here and where I came from. But I never lied
to you about anything else, I promise you that. Especially about how I feel. I can't expect you to trust me when I say that, but I really
like you. And Erin is a gem. I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed
today, even with the snow and the crazy traffic." He glanced at me.
"And being outed by your housemate."

She still looked skeptical, for which I was glad, but I couldn't
help hoping Barr would ask another favor from his co-workers,
and Kelly O'Connell would come out clean.

"But you live in New Jersey," she said.

"For now. I've always moved around a lot. Who knows where
I'll end up?" The corners of his mouth turned up.

Her return smile was tentative, but it was there.

Kelly left after a few more words alone with Meghan. Words which,
by the way, she chose not to share with Barr and me. By then we
were all tired for various reasons and elected to delay further discussion of Kelly's revelations until morning. I helped Barr get settled in Erin's room again, and he fell asleep immediately. Meghan
joined Erin in her bed, and I went to mine.

Alone. Just as well, I thought. I was so exhausted I'd probably
snore. Or worse, drool. Bleah.

Some time later I heard the phone ring, but couldn't claw my
way to consciousness in time to answer it. The sound stopped, and
I allowed myself to drift again.

"Sophie Mae." The whisper beside my bed startled me, and I
sat straight up.

"Meghan?"

"Thaddeus Black is on the phone for you. It's about Ruth."

What on earth? Heart thudding, I took the phone Meghan
proffered. "Hello? Thaddeus?" I shivered in the chill night air and
reached for my big fluffy robe laid across the end of the bed. The
snow outside reflected any meager light it could find a million
times, making the other side of the curtains glow.

"I'm so sorry to call you this late."

"That's okay. Is something wrong?"

"Ruth is in the hospital. She wanted me to phone and ask you
to come."

"Oh, no. Is she okay? What happened?"

"She was attacked. He beat her quite badly."

"Who did?" I breathed.

"Well, the lady from the police keeps talking about a creeper.
Do you think she means a peeping Tom?"

"The Cadyville Creep?" I swung my legs over the side of the
bed and slipped my feet into the yellow ducky slippers waiting on
the floor.

"That sounds right. Do you know what she's talking about?"

"I'm afraid I might. Was she ... ?"

"Was she what?" Thaddeus asked.

"Raped?" The word lashed against my sensibilities as I tried to
connect such a horrible act with spunky Ruth.

The question flustered her uncle. "Oh, no, nothing like that," he
said. There was a pause, and then he asked, "Can you come?"

I picked at the leg of my blue-striped flannel jammies and
mentally sighed. "Sure. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you. I wouldn't ask you myself, but she so wants to talk
to you"

"As soon as I can," I repeated, and we rang off.

Out of the flannel jammies and into a pair of jeans and a longsleeved T-shirt with a thick wool sweater over the top. As I dressed
by the light of my bedside lamp, I got angrier by the second.

Meghan came in, all bleary-eyed and worried looking. "What's
going on?"

I told her about the Cadyville Creep attacking Ruth. "And she
wants me to come to the hospital."

After she railed for a few minutes against anyone who would
stoop to attacking a seventy-year-old woman, Meghan fell silent.

I was lacing up my boots when she asked.

?,,

"Why, what?"

"Why you?"

That gave me pause. Why me indeed? Ruth and I were friendly
acquaintances, but not really anything more than that. At least, we
hadn't been until she started counting on me to prove her beets
weren't the ones that killed Philip.

"Sophie Mae?"

"I really don't know. But I'll let you know once I do."

"Be careful, and give Ruth my love," Meghan said. "Tell her
we'll come help with anything she needs, okay?"

"Of course." If Ruth were going to choose someone at random
to call, I'd have thought it would be Meghan. She was a much
nicer person than I was.

I slipped into Erin's room on my way downstairs to check in
on Barr. His breathing was heavy but not too labored. I thought
about waking him, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. At the
top of the stairs I stooped to pat Brodie on the head and told him
to take care of everyone. He rolled over on his back and looked at me upside down. Maybe he didn't look like much of a watchdog,
but I knew he'd raise holy hell if anything happened.

I bundled up, and then spent a downright silly amount of time
and energy on furtive glances around the eerily silent yard and
street before hurrying out, jumping in my truck and quickly locking the doors.

It was almost midnight. Again, I thought. I was getting a little
tired of being tired. Everyone else seemed to have found their way
home except for a few snowplows on the highway. The orange
streetlights above turned the stark white blanket a bright amber.
The air was electric with cold. With no one in my way, I made
good time to the hospital.

By now I'd become an expert at locating the entrance to the
parking garage.