Kee Patterbee - Hannah Starvling 01 - The Chef at the Water's Edge (25 page)

Peering harder, Hannah agreed. “I’d imagine so.” As she continued along, she offered up her assessment for everyone present to hear. “He fears abandonment and loss of love. Wide word spacing indicates social isolation. Either self-imposed or imposed by the rejection of others. He is solitary and fears being alone. He doesn’t want to lose the thing he loves so continues to hang on to what he has.”

Buster pointed to the inscription. “It’s disconnected. What does that mean?”

“Space between letters indicates a form of control. By keeping his distance from others, he keeps his emotions in check. He has problems making friends because he’s somewhat reserved and uptight. There is no lean, which means that he has a cold personality. Calculating. Pitiless. Sadistic when it comes to other people’s suffering.”

Cate tossed her hands for emphasis. “Nailed it.”

Handing the photo to Cate, Hannah walked over, grabbed a small stool, and sat beside Louie. It was plain for her to see that these new factors had hurt him. At first, he did not look at her. But he came to let his eyes meet hers. “I didn’t know her, did I?” he asked. Sadness echoed in his voice.

“You met someone and fell in love. Sometimes, it just doesn’t reciprocate the same way. I’m sure she cared for you.”

“Do you think he knew about Vera? That she was Julia’s?”

It occurred to Hannah that she had not given it much thought. “I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. After Vera, he went for Jazlyn. I think he’s fixated on whoever reminded him the most of Julia.”

“If that’s the case, then why’d he try to kill Jazlyn?” interrupted Buster.

“I don’t think he meant to. Remember what I told you Chief Rogers said? The set up? It should have just blown Jazlyn back. If it weren’t for her apron catching on fire, it would hurt her. But not kill.”

“That still doesn’t make sense,” Buster complained. “Was he just pranking her or something?”

Cate joined them at the far end of the office. “Maybe he wanted to save her,” she offered. Everyone gave her a puzzled look, so she explained. “He said she would be with him in time. Maybe this is his way of drawing her to him. Some kind of Florence Nightingale plot.”

Buster and Louie both leaned forward, both uttering the same words, “I don’t understand.”

Cate sighed. “Explain it,” she said, gesturing to Hannah. Hannah went on to explain that sometimes victims of traumatic events fall in love with their rescuers. “It’s known as the Florence Nightingale Syndrome,” she completed.

Buster rubbed at his day-old facial growth. “So by putting Jazlyn in danger, he planned to rescue her, thinking she would fall in love with him because of it?”

Hannah nodded, affirming his assessment.

“That’s just stupid. You’d have to be crazy to try something like that.”

Smiling, Hannah pointed at Buster. “Now you’re catching on.”

Wanting to keep Louie occupied, Hannah sent Buster and him to pick up Vera and head back to the studio. “Pretend it’s a follow up. Anything. Just get in. See if anyone noticed anything unusual. Don’t mention Xabiere. It will just lead them. See whose name pops up. ” Once they had exited, she called Hym to give them an update before turning to Cate. “Come on. We’re going to talk to Asa himself.”

On the drive over to the Karas estate, Hannah informed Cate that Hym was at the museum. He was following up on the break-in and that he would catch up with them after their meeting with Asa.

Once they arrived at the house, the valet, Homer Staples, directed Hannah and Cate out to the formal gardens. Asa was standing on the lawn in a full-length black leather coat, staring out toward the area where Julia had died. As they approached, Hannah saw he appeared to be blinking back tears and held a bottle of some kind in one hand and a glass in the other.

“Mr. Karas,” Hannah said in a soft voice. “Can we talk? It’s important.”

At first, he said nothing. “I should have it removed,” he said. “I never should have brought her here. Big lake. Big man. Big money. Not feeling so big now.” Finishing his drink, he turned his attention to Hannah and Cate. “I’m cold. Let’s go inside.”

When they all were in the living room, Asa collapsed into a chair. “My apologies. I’m not myself, as you can see.” Holding the bottle up, he noticed it was empty, and placed it on the floor beside him. “This business with my niece, and then the museum…” He shook his head. “It’s just all hard to understand.”

Hannah looked into the man’s dark eyes as she sat down in the chair across from him. “I want to help you and the police end this. But I need your help. Are you willing?”

“Yes, I suppose so. I haven’t been able to stop it all myself,” Asa said, readjusting himself in his chair.

“What can you tell me about Julia’s love life before she met you?” Hannah began. “Can you tell us about it?”

Her question surprised Asa, but he answered all the same. “Not much.” His facial expression changed and he said with a shrug, “I’m not the man everyone thinks I am.”

Hannah and Cate waited for an explanation, and after a moment, he gave one.

“I’m a businessman. It’s what I do. What I am good at. I know I am controlling. That’s just part of the game. But when it came to Julia, she had me the moment I laid eyes on her. I didn’t care who she had been with or who she had left in her wake. I never controlled her. She controlled me.”

Hannah evaluated his actions and responses and concluded that he was being forthright. “So you never had her checked out?”

“I never found it necessary. Not that it would have mattered. Even if she had been the wickedest person on the planet, it wouldn’t have mattered. I loved her.”

“Do you at least know who worked with her back when she was fresh out of school and writing recipes?” Cate asked.

“Jack Miller, I suppose.” Asa seemed to drift in and out of thought.

“Did he hire other chefs to assist her in coming up with her recipes?” Hannah pressed him.

Looking confused, Asa replied, “Not that I know of. I know that after he was able to lock her into that repressive contract, he had a say in every aspect of her business affairs. So it’s probable.” He looked up at the large framed painted portrait of Julia hanging above a small table with a large pink vase with a gold rim cap. “My poor love. So naïve. You know, people think she’s buried in the mausoleum.”

Hannah and Cate looked at the capped vase and exchanged looks.

“You mean…” Cate questioned.

“I could never do that to her. Those were not her wishes. I could never deny her anything.” Asa produced a meek smile. “Everything’s coming out now. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

As Asa laid his head back and stared at the ceiling, Hannah could see the pain in his face. All her assessments of the man now needed readjusting. He loved Julia. Every instinct in her body told her so. Still, she needed answers, so she pressed on.

“Perhaps I can ask him myself,” Hannah suggested. “Do you have any idea where I might find him?”

“In Hell, I hope.”

Anger and vehemence laced Asa’s comment. He stood and walked over to the sideboard, picked up a decanter and poured the contents into a small glass. “Drink?” he offered. Both Hannah and Cate declined. Asa then took his glass and drank it in one fell swoop. He then slammed the glass down on the table.

“Honey, I’m afraid Jack won’t be around here today or any other day. I am rid of him.”

“Oh?” Hannah asked puzzled.

“He went off to Nashville sometime last night, before Jazlyn’s accident,” Asa explained. “And he’s never coming back.” He picked up the glass and poured again. “You see, I was right about him. He did have a number in mind all along.”

Hannah and Cate listened to the man’s tirade. She hoped that, between recent events and the alcohol, he would reveal more than his control issues would ordinarily allow.

“Oh, at first, I let him be. I considered that Julia needed him for some sort of support and besides, he had that damn contract. I knew he wanted her. But she rebuffed him. Again and again. Then something changed. He started rumors that Jazlyn and I were carrying on. Then he made the whole thing public. I underestimated what a bastard he could be.” Asa downed another glass and stood silent for a moment. He seemed to shudder, as if throwing off a bad feeling. “Then he tried his hand with Jazlyn. Some sort of revenge. I’m still not sure if I was his intended target or Julia. Maybe he was just trying to keep his finger in the pie. Going around my back, trying to get her to sign his contract. It would have been just like it was with Julia. When I finally found out about it all, I went to the rehearsal, and we got into a fight. It ended when he named his figure!”

Hannah considered for a second what her next move should be. She decided to push at him, to see his reaction, when she told of Miller’s confession. “The police questioned him about his part in paying off the medical examiner. Also about any others who handled your wife’s toxicology results. He will have to answer for his part in that.”

He leveled his eyes on Hannah. Cate and she waited for what seemed like an eternity for him to say something. “I suppose I’ll have to answer for that as well.”

“He said he was protecting her reputation.”

Asa half laughed. “Protecting his investment, maybe. He never wanted her. He wanted what she had.”

“Why’d you do it then?” Cate interposed.

“Because of the rumor he started, Julia went into a deep depression. She moved into the studio apartment and treated me like a pariah. I pleaded with her to trust me. Swore that the rumors were not true. She rejected everyone. Jack thought by starting them, he would drive a wedge between Julia and me and then he could step in. He half succeeded.”

Asa rubbed his eyes. Walking back over to the sideboard, he considered another drink as he ran his fingers around the rim of the glass. He pushed it away, returned to his chair and plopped down. Hannah could tell that all the alcohol was working on him. It would just be a matter of time before he gave into it and fell asleep.

“The one person she would have anything to do with was Vera. They were close, you know.

“We’ve heard,” Cate acknowledged.

“Is that why you named Jazlyn Julia’s successor and not Vera?”

Asa closed his eyes and swallowed. “Yes. The one thing I ever did deny her. And I did it after she was gone so she wouldn’t see it. How pathetic is that?” He produced a fake smile. “Not going to get that husband of the year award, I guess.”

The fact that he could not hurt Julia, even in death, suggested that Asa was not responsible for her death. If he had harmed her, it seemed to Hannah that he could not have handled what he had done. As a man who was always in control, such an outcome would have driven him over the edge. Even now, he could not handle what little act of vengeance he had taken.

“Did you know about the pills?”

“I learned of them through my accountant. He saw the expenditures and thought I should know. When I asked her about them, she said she needed them to sleep. She never slept well, but in recent months, it seemed to be worse.” Asa let out of long, sorrowful sigh. “I never thought she would overdose on the damn things.”

“That’s just it, she didn’t.”

Upon this, Asa sat up. “She had barbiturates in her system. The evidence was in the original report. She was wandering outside in a drug-induced state, fell into the post, then the water, and drowned. Jack came to me about it. He suspected something would show up.”

“Why is that?” Cate probed.

“Because she had been acting so strange the few months before the accident, even before the rumors. Something was bothering her. He figured that the stress of the show was getting to her and that she was taking something for it. Of course, he kept me out of the loop while she was alive. But when she died, he needed help covering it all up. So he came to me for enough money to pay off the medical examiner. The stupid man left a paper trail a mile long. So I had to step in and clean it up myself to preserve my precious wife’s name.”

For a few seconds, Hannah struggled to find a way to say what was necessary. There was no predicting Asa’s reaction to what she was about to reveal. In the end, she chose to put it forth as simply and succinctly as possible. “It wasn’t the drugs that killed her. And she didn’t drown. She died from a blow to the head. She was dead before she ever hit the water. Were you not so consumed in grief and blinded by Miller’s careless actions, the examiner might have realized that. But in the rush to cover up the fact that she had drugs in her system, explainable drugs, the ME overlooked this fact.”

Asa sat mouth agape in disbelief. “Then who are you suggesting did this?”

“I have an idea that it’s the same person who tried to hurt Jazlyn. Take a look at this.” Hannah pulled the two photos from earlier out of her purse.

Asa scanned the pictures. His eyes narrowed and his face masked rage. “Xabiere Dauphin. Just much younger.” He turned the wedding photo over and read the inscription. “Do you recognize the handwriting?” Asa’s eyes focused, despite the alcohol running through his system. “No. But I can assure you, it’s not Julia’s, if that is what you are asking.” He looked down once more at the writing as he gestured to imitate a pen or pencil. “She had the most perfect handwriting I have ever seen. Smooth, flowing. Readable. Not like this at all. But you already know this. Is it Xabiere’s?”

“I think so. But his name isn’t Xabiere Dauphin. It’s William Barton. And he’s not French. He’s a mimic. And it appears he had a relationship with Julia before you.”

“And now it appears he has turned his attention to your niece, Jazlyn,” Cate added.

Asa looked up at his two guests. “Jazlyn and I were arguing last night, as well. I accused her…” He looked away for a brief few seconds before coming back to the ladies. “I accused her of a great many things, one was having an affair with both Miller and Xabiere.”

“How’d that work out for you?” Cate inquired in a knowing voice.

“She defended herself.” Asa replied. “She admitted having relationships with both, but they were…just physical. Nothing beyond that.”

“The other day, Xabiere was acting territorial with your niece,” Hannah cut in. “I heard him threaten her in a way. That she would be his one-day or something of that nature. Did she ever say anything about that to you?”