Kilt Dead (20 page)

Two hours after leaving the lawyer’s office, Liss sat in
a much less comfortable chair plastic-in much less
pleasant surroundings. LaVerdiere had commandeered an
interview room in the Carrabassett County jail in which
to question Liss. With Mr. Carrier at her side, she sat across
from the detective at a heavy wooden table that took up
most of the space. A tape recorder sat between them on
its scarred surface.

They’d already gone over everything twice. LaVerdiere’s
annoyance ratcheted up a notch with each repetition.
“How could you not know you were in line to inherit that
much money?”

Mr. Carrier spoke before Liss could. “She did not know
because no one told her. She wasn’t in the area until a few
days ago, and I know Mrs. Norris had no intention of
mentioning the matter to anyone. Why should she? She
might well have decided to make someone else her heir
once Ms. MacCrimmon recovered completely from her
injury and found new employment.”

“She looks pretty fit to me. Maybe Mrs. Norris was already looking for a new heir.”

“Groundless speculation, as was your earlier supposition that Mrs. Norris acquired her fortune by illegal means”
Carrier abruptly stood, making Liss scramble to follow
suit. “Detective LaVerdiere, I have had enough of this
nonsense. Do you plan to charge Ms. MacCrimmon?”

Santa Claus had morphed into Perry Mason. Liss felt
like letting out a cheer.

LaVerdiere glowered at him. “Not at this time.”

“Good. Have you finished with Mrs. Norris’s house?”

He got a curt nod in response.

“And my aunt’s building?” Liss chimed in.

“Yes. We have all we need. But you haven’t seen the
last of me, Ms. MacCrimmon.”

Carrier put a hand on Liss’s arm to keep her from saying anything more. He’d already opened the door for her
when he turned back to speak to LaVerdiere. “One more
thing, Detective. About Mrs. Norris’s effects? I assume
you have a list of what you took away as evidence. There
was a computer, I believe?”

Liss held her breath, hoping LaVerdiere wouldn’t guess
that her lawyer only knew that because she’d passed on
what Sherri had told her.

“Ongoing investigation. I don’t discuss-“

“We’d like a receipt for everything you confiscated. I’ll
expect to have it in hand by this time tomorrow.”

The door closed with a quiet snick right in LaVerdiere’s
face. Liss had to stifle a laugh.

Yup Perry Mason, all right. As played by Raymond
Burr. With a dash of Peter Falk’s Columbo thrown in for
good measure.

In spite of LaVerdiere’s continued suspicions, Liss felt
much more optimistic as she drove back toward Moosetookalook. Her route took her past the trailer park where
Sherri lived with her mother and son. On impulse, she
stopped. Sherri might still be sleeping, but if she wasn’t,
Liss could share her news.

Most of the trailers were neat and well-kept, the single
exception an old wreck at the back near the woods. The
Willetts lived in a blue and white double-wide with a picket
fence around its small yard. Flowers had been planted next
to the trailer but the rest of the space was a grassy playground containing a swing set and a sandbox. Mrs. Willett
looked up at the sound of a car stopping. Her young charge,
a small, towheaded boy who could only be Sherri’s son,
Adam, paid no attention to Liss’s arrival.

Liss didn’t have much experience with children. Some
parents brought their offspring to Strathspey but they
were usually older than this. “Good morning, Mrs. Willett. I don’t know if you remember me, but-“

“You’re Liss MacCrimmon. You take after your mother.”

Liss was surprised by the observation. Most people
said she looked like the MacCrimmon side of the family.
“Is Sherri up yet?”

“No, and I’m not going to wake her.” Sherri got her
size from Ida Willett. Hands on thin hips, the woman looked as if a good gust of wind could blow her away, but
Liss didn’t doubt her determination for a minute. Sherri
had inherited that from her mother, too.

“That’s good. That’s fine. I just took a chance stopping
by.” She wondered if Sherri had told her mother anything
about the investigation.

“Nana? Who’s she?”

The high piping voice of Adam Willett served to remind Liss that anything they said would be overheard by
an impressionable child and probably repeated at the
most inconvenient time to someone who didn’t need to
know what they’d talked about. So much for asking Ida
questions.

“This is your mama’s friend Liss,” Mrs. Willett said.
“Say hello and shake her hand, Adam”

Liss took the small, rather dirty hand in hers and solemnly
shook. “Good morning, Adam. Is that your sandbox?”

He nodded earnestly. Then, suddenly shy, he sidled behind his grandmother’s legs, clinging to her knees.

“Go make a sand castle,” she told him. “I’ll be right
here watching.” She moved a little farther away and motioned for Liss to follow.

Assuming Sherri had filled her mother in on some of
what had been happening, or that at the least she’d have
read about Mrs. Norris’s death in the newspaper, Liss expected her to make some comment on the murder.

Instead she hissed a warning: “Leave us out of your
troubles, Liss MacCrimmon”

Sherri had gotten into trouble over this. Liss started to
ask what had happened at the jail last night, but Mrs. Willett
was still talking.

“You’ve got no business snooping around in the past”

The past? “Mrs. Willett, my only goal is to find out
who might have broken into my aunt’s shop and killed
Mrs. Norris.”

“I know what you’re thinking-if the intruder wasn’t a thief, then maybe it was someone who wanted to hurt
Margaret Boyd’s business, someone who had a personal
grudge against her.”

“Like your ex-husband?” Liss’s gaze shifted to Adam,
who was industriously scooping sand into his bucket and
piling it in towers. When she glanced from the boy to the
street beyond, she was not surprised to see several neighbors taking an interest in her presence.

“Like Ernie,” Ida Willett agreed.

“The police didn’t find his fingerprints. Besides, his
absence from his store would have been noticed and remarked upon. Since it wasn’t-as far as I know-then the
odds are good that he never left the premises that day, let
alone had time to drive to the Emporium, get inside, murder Mrs. Norris, and get back to his own place.”

“So you’ve got no reason to tell anyone, then? About
the picture you found?”

Belatedly, Liss caught on. “Not unless he does have a
personal grudge against Aunt Margaret.”

“I’m the one with the grudge,” Mrs. Willett snapped.
“Your aunt ruined my marriage.”

Liss stared at her. Did she really expect anyone to believe Ernie Willett was suffering from a broken heart?
That the origin of his anger and Ida’s-might go back
thirty-five years boggled the mind. Granted, if he’d never
gotten over losing his first love, that would have been
hard on the woman he later married, but for Ida to have
been jealous of Margaret Boyd all this time …

“I’m only interested in finding out who killed
Mrs. Norris,” Liss repeated. “Unless you did it-“

“I was here, with my grandson, all afternoon. And if I
was going to kill anyone, it wouldn’t have been Amanda
Norris.”

iss made one more stop before going back to Dan’s
house. She wanted to talk to her aunt, but first she
needed to know how Aunt Margaret had reacted to the
news of Mrs. Norris’s death. Certain Ned had been able
to reach her in Scotland by now, Liss drove one more
block instead of turning right off Main Street onto Birch,
and hung a left onto High Street. Ned lived in one of two
apartments above the grocery store.

She parked and was halfway across the small lot before she remembered she still had all the merchandise left
over from the Highland Games stored in her car. She
fished in her bag for her keys and pressed the lock button.
The horn beeped once, startling her. She really had to get
in the habit of locking up before she slammed the car
door. Much quieter. But she hadn’t even gotten used to
owning a car yet. With a cab, or the company’s tour bus,
all she’d had to do was get out and go.

Liss didn’t expect her cousin to be home and had planned
to leave him a note telling him that she was moving back
into Aunt Margaret’s apartment, at least temporarily. It
didn’t seem right to move into Mrs. Norris’s house while
things were so unsettled. But when she reached Ned’s
door, it was open. Ned himself lounged against the doorsill.

“Saw you coming through the window. Coffee? Cocktail?” He gestured toward the small kitchen directly across
from the inside hallway.

“Nothing. I’m good. What are you doing home in the
middle of the afternoon?”

“I took a vacation day.”

Hence the ratty jeans and sweatshirt. And it was beer
she smelled on his breath, not coffee. Liss hadn’t visited
Ned’s apartment before and was struck by how oddly
arranged the rooms were. They had to cross Ned’s bedroom to reach the pocket doors that separated it from the
living room. As Liss threaded her way through the mess
in her cousin’s wake, she couldn’t help noticing that his
bed was unmade and that discarded clothing lay scattered
about in disorderly piles. The living room wasn’t much better. The furniture looked both new and expensive, but
Ned’s carelessly strewn possessions, from magazines and
DVDs to crushed beer cans and dirty socks, completely
spoiled the effect.

“Did you talk to your mother?”

“Yeah. I called her” He picked up the can of beer he’d
left on the coffee table and took a long swallow. “I said I
would, didn’t I?”

“How did she take the news?” Liss shoved a pile of
newspapers aside so that she could perch on the end of
the couch.

“She was upset, but she’s not coming home early. You
know Mom. She committed to the three weeks, so she’ll
stick it out. No reason for her to come home really. Nothing she could do” Still carrying his beer, he settled into
the recliner and elevated the footrest.

“I need to talk to her.”

“What for? You’ll just make her feel bad that she can’t
be here to help out. Probably mess up her concentration
so she won’t do a good job over there. I’m pretty sure she wants to be asked back. Don’t go screwing things up for
her.”

Torn, Liss leaned forward, hands clasped on her knees.
It wasn’t just that she had questions for Aunt Margaret.
She needed a dose of her aunt’s common sense. A little
affectionate consoling wouldn’t be amiss either.

Ned regarded her through bleary, slightly bloodshot
eyes. “Give Mom a break, Liss. Don’t bug her about stuff
she can’t do anything about. Besides, she’s going to be
moving around a lot. She said it would be easier for her to
call me than for me to catch up with her again.”

Liss frowned. That didn’t sound right. Margaret had given
her a copy of her itinerary, complete with phone numbers.
“But, Ned

“Let her enjoy herself, for God’s sake!” He came halfway out of his chair and tossed the now empty beer can
across the room for emphasis.

“Okay. Okay, I won’t try to phone her. But she’s going
to call you?”

“That’s what she said.”

“When she does, please let her know that I’m moving
back into the apartment tonight and I’ll reopen the shop
tomorrow or the next day, depending on how long it takes
to put things back in order.”

“Mom said to tell you she trusts you to take care of
everything.”

“That’s good to hear.” But Liss couldn’t quite shake
the feeling that Ned was improvising, saying whatever it
took to get her off his back.

“So, the cops are through with whatever they were
doing in the shop?” Ned’s eyes drifted closed. He looked
relaxed enough to drop off to sleep at any moment.

“Yes. If it’s not gone already, I’ll be taking down the
crime-scene tape as soon as I get back there”

“LaVerdiere arrest anybody yet?”