Plundered Christmas (15 page)

With that, Charlie escorted them down the hall to the room that housed William's still form.

I hadn't been down there since they moved him in, and I didn't really want to be. The idea of staying in the room with a dead man, unless I had to for a funeral or something like that, made me think of horror movies and zombies. Not really something I would willingly do to myself. In fact, as much as humanly possible I had been doing my best to ignore the fact that the non-breathing form was under the roof with me.

I looked down at the decidedly breathing and quite lively form of Josie. “Why don't we go grab some breakfast? I know Frau Schmidt still has coffeecake set out from yesterday.”

Josie agreed, but had to put her two cents in. “You know, Mom, as much as you say you want breakfast, what you really want is the coffee.”

She had something there.

On the way across the room to the sideboard at the back, we gathered James and a still groggy Justin. “I can't remember ever sleeping so well on the floor,” James said, giving me a quick kiss and hug good morning. “I didn't wake up once.”

“Me neither.”

James tilted his head sideways. “You didn't wake up? At all?”

“Nope!” I beamed. “It must be the fresh sea air.”

He looked at the crumpled outfit that I'd worn some form of for the past two days. “I don't know. Have you checked your pocket?”

“My …” The map. I reached into my right hand pocket. I didn't even have to unzip it. “Oh no!” Someone had definitely taken the map from me during the night. “It's gone.”

James nodded. “I had a hunch. When you said that you slept amazingly well with just blankets and the floor, well, that's not you, Neenie. You are not a roughing it kind of gal. So I guessed that somehow, someone gave us something to keep us asleep last night.”

We compared memories about what we'd had the night before. All of us had apple cider. It was very cinnamon-y, maybe to cover up something we weren't supposed to taste? And Justin had not only his cup, but he'd asked Charlie for his as well.

“That would explain why you are so groggy,” James told Justin. “But you need to get up. Things they might have used can have side-effects. It's best to get up and move around.”

So we dragged Justin over to the food. He was still moving slower than his usual. However, when he took two slices of
stollen
and accepted a cup of Mrs. Schmidt's homemade hot chocolate, we knew he was OK.

Frank and Dad also reported sleeping like logs. “So you think,” Dad said, “that someone drugged the cider?” We admitted it was the only possibility we had thought of that made any sense.

“Have you seen Aimee this morning, Frank?”

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “No. She left me a note that said she was going for a walk.”

Then maybe she hadn't had any of the cider. I planned to ask her later.

After we all ate a little, one of the Coast Guard officers came out to ask questions. Since James had taken and sent the pictures, he pulled him aside first.

“What a thankless job they have,” James said when he came back. “I don't envy the work ahead of them.”

I was glad he sympathized with the officers, but wanted to make certain that they knew and recognized my husband as good and honorable. “But you're in the clear, right?”

“Neenie, technically no one's in the clear until someone is under arrest.” I must have looked panicked because he added, “But for now they don't need to ask me anything else.”

He turned to my dad and brother. “I was hoping you two could come look at the generator with me. Charlie found the maintenance manual out in the cellar. It doesn't look too terribly complicated, but both of you are better with tools and machinery than I am.” It was a Jensen male thing that went along with the territory of stuffing and mounting dead animals. “If we can get it fixed, so much the better. I mean, according to the song, we still have eleven days of Christmas left. And I, for one, want to enjoy the tree we worked so hard on a bit longer.”

They agreed. Neither had been chosen for questioning yet, so they let Charlie and Margo know where they would be in case either of the officers needed them.

Margo was excited about their plans. “Yes, do see if you can get it working again. It's a shame to have Christmas decorations without lights.”

When they got ready to head off, I told the kids to follow the men with Jelly so the pooch got to run around and do his business.

“Can I take his ball?” Justin asked.

That meant that he needed to run around just as much as the dog did.

“Sure. But stay in sight of Dad and Uncle Frank, OK?”

They agreed so I scooted them out the door.

Then, I turned to face Margo and asked her what the doctor had said about her shoulder.

She didn't answer right away.

“Let me guess, Margo. The storm delayed things a little too much.”

She reached up with her left hand to gingerly touch the bandaged wound. “They could do plastic surgery on it. If I wanted. She said, actually, that it was healing well and that you all followed instructions. But in order to heal cleanly and avoid the scarring, yes, they would have had to have seen me earlier.”

“So has she finished treating you?”

“Not yet. She did the first part. She gave me some medicine for the pain that works a bit better than ibuprofen. She cleaned the wound thoroughly—that hurt. She told me she'll look it over again in a couple of hours before she puts in the special web gauze and a couple of stitches. First, she wants to make sure I have no sign of infection.'

That made sense.

“Who would guess I would spend Christmas celebrating on a couch?” she went on. “Some hostess I've been for you and your family!”

While I could tell it bothered her, and I certainly wouldn't wish her injured and suffering, in some ways it seemed better. “Please don't feel bad on our account, Margo. I didn't wish the hurt you're going through on anyone, but as far as a way to get to know you, it's worked. You've been kind of our captive audience.”

She smiled at that. But I could tell my words didn't make her happy. Perhaps, she thought that we would be her captive audience.

I heard a clicking sound and then Margo said “Ooh!” Her eyes lit up. “That father of yours is a genius.”

Just then, I heard the crooning of Nat King Cole. I looked over my shoulder to see the tree in its full glory. That was a pleasant sight.

The two younger guys came in ostensibly congratulating themselves and accepting all the praise from those present.

I could tell, though, that James, especially, was not thrilled about something. I excused myself from Margo and went over to find out what was up.

James pulled me off to the side. “Before you say anything, your Dad's watching the kids. Neither they nor Jelly were ready to come back in yet.” He leaned into me. “Things are not right here. I wish I knew what was going on.” I could see the worry etched on his face. “Would you believe that we could have had power any time? We hadn't even guessed that possibility. The storm did not blow out the generator. It probably made it flicker, but someone took advantage of the wind interrupting the power and cut a main wire. All we did was replace the wire and seal it all with some electrical tape. That's why it went so quickly.”

“But who? Why?” It didn't make sense. Whoever did that put themselves in the dark and cold for the duration of the storm, too.

“That's exactly what I'd like to know.”

At that moment, Charlie came up and said it was my turn to answer some questions.

 

****

 

I thought they had been taking everyone to the William room and I was quite grateful to discover that instead they were using the study of the former Mr. Banet, Margo's husband. It was on the east wing, too, but on the right hand of the hall instead of the left.

I hadn't remembered seeing that room when we had the grand tour. Large, like most of the rooms in the house, it still managed to have a small room feel. There were maps and globes everywhere. He had obviously enjoyed supervising the trading enterprise that the Banet family operated until recently. The walls had wood paneling and the carpet matched the brown tones but accented them with red. It felt wealthy, but calming, too. It also had a good amount of light from the large bay window and several comfortable chairs.

“Have a seat, Mrs. Talbott. I'm Lieutenant Owen.” He was a tall, but slender man with dark skin, hair, and nearly black eyes. He shook my hand and indicated my chair.

“Thank you.” I sat. The leather chair was comfortable, but so big I felt swallowed.

“Relax,” he said.

Funny how authorities always tell you to relax when it's absolutely impossible. It's like when the doctor prepares to swab your throat for strep and tells you to relax and say ‘ah'. I've yet to know anyone at all who can relax in such a situation.

“Thank you,” I said again. I didn't know what else he wanted me to say at this point. And like I've always said, my mother did raise me to be polite if nothing else.

“We were told you found the body.”

I nodded.

“Can you tell me about it?”

I told him how the kids and I had taken Jelly for a walk and that coming back, I saw something blue in the bushes. “It didn't look as if it belonged there, so I went in closer to look.”

“Your husband said you kept the kids back. Why would you do that if you didn't know it was a body?”

Inside, I gave a huge sigh. I should have seen this coming. Outside, I took a breath and explained. “Lieutenant, until a year and a half ago, I wouldn't have. But I've been stuck with two dead bodies before this. Something just didn't look right, so I didn't want to take a chance and have my kids see something horrid that they'd never forget. Also, this isn't my house or island or anything. I don't have any authority here so I wanted someone with some clout to assess things for me.”

He seemed to accept that. Then he went on to ask about when we had noticed William missing. He had me name everyone on the island currently. He asked me to explain about the storm and how we coped. He seemed particularly interested that Mrs. Schmidt had gas under the stove to use for cooking. I hoped that information wasn't going to cause her trouble.

At that point, he said he wanted me to show him the spot where I found the body. He asked that I also introduce him to Justin and Josie so he could question them as well. He wanted to keep them outside to talk to him where they'd be more comfortable.

“Please stay nearby and keep whichever child I'm not questioning close enough to see, but too far to hear what the other is saying. And keep him or her busy, too.”

I didn't realize until I led him toward the front door that I hadn't stepped outside yet today. Opening the door to the outside was like biting into a chocolate bar. It was perfect. Yes, the debris was still everywhere. But the air bathed me in tropical breezes, the sun shone on my face, and the aromas from the flowers and the sea made my nose dance. I wanted to pirouette and rejoice in front of my God. But I held it inside and simply said, “My, it's lovely today.”

The agreement from Lieutenant Owen was less than stellar. Obviously, he did not have his mind on the weather.

I felt like skipping down the path, but one look at the serious face next to me made me walk slowly and carefully.

I showed him the bushes down the path from the front door which had so effectively hidden William's form as we left the house, but didn't completely conceal it upon our return. There had been too much rain to preserve the indentations where he had lain, so I showed Lieutenant Owen as best I could. I must have showed him the same spot that James did, because he seemed satisfied. He made some notes, and then took a couple pictures of his own.

“OK, let's head onto the kids. First, I'd like to assure you, I will always stay in visual range of you, Mrs. Talbott, when I interact with your kids.”

I assured him that I believed he wouldn't take a single step into the realm of impropriety. I followed him over to where they played with Jelly.

After being cooped up inside for the better part of two days, my kids and my dog definitely did have the weather in mind. They appeared, though, to have worn out my father who watched them, half asleep, on the bench nearby.

I walked up to him, shook his shoulder and smiled. “You're relieved from duty, Dad. Lieutenant Owen and I are out here now, so between us and Jelly, the kids should be safe.”

He mumbled something that I couldn't quite tell if it was “thanks” or “sorry” or a combination of the two. Then he gave me a half-hug around the shoulders and drowsily stumbled back to the house.

“Hi, you two,” I said to get their attention. Then I let them know that they were up next on the interviewing process.

The lieutenant told them they could choose between themselves who would talk to him first.

Normally, my kids enjoy talking to adults, sharing what they know, and in general, showing off. But time to answer questions for Lieutenant Owen meant not playing at that exact moment. Their play had been seriously restricted for the last two days. They ended up tossing a coin and Justin lost.

Josie ran around with Jelly while Justin spoke to the Coast Guard official.

I noticed that most of his answers were only one or two words. The questioning didn't take long.

The kids switched places and Justin was joyfully racing Jelly over branches and around trees and Josie was talking.

To her credit, she did actually talk to the man. The more she spoke, the more incredulous he looked. After he finished his list of questions with her, he came over to me.

“You coached her, didn't you ma'am?”

I knew why he thought this and if I'd been thinking and had two cups of coffee instead of just one, I would have remembered to warn him about my girl's abilities. “No sir. She has a photographic memory. She also loves Nancy Drew mysteries so she's good about noticing details and looking for clues. If you want to test her on it, take her somewhere she hasn't been, give her five minutes to look everything over and then quiz her. She'll answer almost any question you can think of.”