The Trouble with Turkeys (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 2) (3 page)

“His wife, Olivia.”

“Oliver and Olivia?” I giggled. “Really?”

“
ʼ
Fraid so.”

Olivia, like Oliver, was tall and regal, with dark hair and dark eyes. Both were thin to the point of gauntness and presented an air of controlled sophistication that didn’t quite jibe with the expensive but faded clothes they wore. If I had to
guess, I’d say they’d had a substantial amount of money at some point.

  Jeremy continued to identify the occupants of the room as I studied each in turn. Sitting across from Oliver, to Mason’s left, was a portly man with chubby cheeks and a round head. He was as bald as he was rotund and looked freakishly similar to Uncle Fester from
The Addams Family
movie. Jeremy informed me that he was the second eldest son of the recently deceased: Leroy Tisdale. Based on the redness of his fleshy face and the beads of sweat on his brow, it appeared that, unlike his quiet and controlled brother, he had a temper and wasn’t afraid to show it.

“And the woman to Leroy’s left?” I inquired.

“His sister and Charles’s only daughter, Peggy.”

Peggy, like Leroy, was a bit on the plump side, with a reddish skin tone and thinning blond hair that was held together with at least a can of hairspray. I cringed at the bright blue eye shadow and red blush on her fleshy cheeks, which gave her a clown-like appearance.

“To Peggy’s left is her daughter, Margaret,” Jeremy continued.

Margaret had shoulder-length blond hair and a nice smile. She was a bit on the plain side, but, unlike her gaudily dressed mother, she wore little makeup and was dressed in an appropriate black dress.

“At the end of the table, opposite Mason, is Charles’s grandson Brent, who, like Charles’s children, Oliver, Leroy, and Peggy, is a beneficiary. He is the son of Charles’s youngest child, Bertram, who is currently incarcerated and so not in attendance.”

I looked at the man Jeremy was referring to. He was handsome, in his early twenties, with thick brown hair, dark eyes, and a bored expression on his face. Of all the members of the family, he looked to be the least interested in defending whatever tidbit the old man had left him. I noticed that he winked at the woman to his left, a strikingly beautiful brunette, as Leroy launched into a tirade worthy of a spoiled child.

“And the girl sitting to Brent’s left?” I wondered.

“Her name is Holly. Apparently, she’s the daughter of Charles’s mistress, Dolly Robinson, who isn’t in attendance. Interestingly enough, she inherited a portion of the estate equal to
the other members of the family.”

“How do you know all of this?” I wondered.

“When I arrived yesterday I was curious about the family, so I struck up a conversation with Mason’s intern, a very helpful and informed woman who was at loose ends while Mason met with Oliver behind closed doors.”

“So you felt it was the polite thing to do to keep her entertained?”

“Exactly.”

“And where is this intern today?”

“I’m not sure. Unfortunately Mason came alone.”

“Let me guess,”
I teased. “Mason’s intern happens to be young and beautiful.”

Jeremy grinned. The guy had a type
, and if the intern was blond and stacked I had no doubt he’d talked to her for quite some time.

“Okay, let me see if I’ve got this straight.” I studied the interesting group. “Oliver is Charles’s eldest son. He’s both an heir and the estate executor. He’s married to Olivia, who isn’t a beneficiary. Charles’s second son, Leroy, also an heir, is here alone. His sister, Peggy, who’s mentioned in the will as well, is here with her daughter, Margaret
, who was not named a beneficiary.”

“So far, so good.” Jeremy
chuckled at my attempt to make sense of this circus.

“Charles’s
grandson Brent is both a beneficiary and in attendance. His father Bertram is in prison and not in attendance. Do you know what he’s in prison for?”

“Manslaughter.”

“Do you know who he killed?”

“No, I didn’t think to ask.”

I glanced back toward the table. The arguing had ceased and everyone was sitting around staring at one another as they waited to see who would make the next move. The woman sitting on Brent’s left leaned in toward him and whispered something in his ear. “And last but not least, the final participant in this little game,” I continued as I watched the woman, “is the young and beautiful Holly, who is an heir even though she’s in no way related to the others and is in fact the daughter of Charles’s mistress, Dolly.”

“Bingo.”

“Do we know why Dolly isn’t in attendance?”

“
We
don’t,” Jeremy teased.

“Okay, then do
you
know why Dolly isn’t in attendance?”

“I don’t. She hasn’t been here since I’ve been on the property. She’s evidently not named in the will, so she may feel there isn’t a reason for her presence.”

“If she was currently ‘dating’”—I used the term loosely—“Charles at the time of his death, you’d think she’d be here to see to the final arrangements.”

Jeremy shrugged. “You’d think. Maybe she’s mad that she wasn’t included in the money grab.”

“Maybe. Are there any heirs not in attendance?” I wondered.

“I don’t know.”

I continued to study the strange group at the table. “It’s odd that Oliver looks so much different from either Leroy or Peggy, who do share a family resemblance.”

“Different mothers,” Jeremy explained.

“How long exactly did you talk with this intern?”

“A
while.” Jeremy blushed. “Although it was the neighbor, Pike, who filled me in on the wives.”

“When did you have time to speak to the neighbor?”

“When I first arrived, Mason suggested that I speak to the man. He assured me that Charles and Pike had been close friends for years, and if there was anything specific I needed to know about the turkeys, he’d be the best source of that information. It was a worthwhile conversation on many levels.”

“Why is that?”

“For one thing, the man loves to talk. Not only did he give me some tips on caring for the birds but he was able to elaborate on the heirs and other guests as well. I guess he was Charles’s best friend and has known the family since Charles bought the property when Oliver was four.”

“So what did he tell you about the wives?”

“It seems Oliver is the child of Charles’s first wife, Amelia, who died in her sleep when Oliver was six. Leroy and Peggy were born to wife number two, Penelope, whom Charles divorced shortly after Peggy’s birth. Brent’s father, Bertram, was born out of wedlock to a prostitute by the name of Lola, who later married Charles and lived with him for almost twenty years until Charles hooked up with Dolly. Lola now lives in Los Angeles.”

“This sounds like a soap opera.” I giggled.

“It gets better,” Jeremy assured me. “Pike seems convinced that Charles was murdered, and that one of the people sitting at that table is the one who killed him. According to the man, each and every one of the guests currently staying at the estate has a reason for wanting the man dead.”

“Charles was murdered? I thought I heard that he fell and hit his head.”

“The official story at this point is that Charles had an accident, but Pike seems certain that there is more going on. When I spoke to him, he insisted that his old friend had been murdered.”

“Okay, say he’s right and Charles was murdered. You said the guests all have motives for killing the man. What kind of motives?” I had to admit I was curious.

“For a start, Oliver has reason to believe that his father killed his mother. At the time of Amelia’s death, there was speculation that she was slowly being poisoned because the autopsy revealed there was belladonna in her system. Charles claimed his wife dabbled in herbal remedies to deal with the various ailments from which she suffered most of her life. He claimed that if it was the belladonna that killed her, it was by her own hand. This statement could be neither proven nor disproven, so Charles was never charged with her death, although Pike said that many of the neighbors in the area felt that Charles was a cold and uncaring man who could easily have killed his sickly wife rather than deal with the enormous expense and workload her frail state generated.”

“What did Pike think?”

“He believed Charles when he insisted that he was innocent, but he did admit that there were a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the woman’s death.”

“I can see how that gives Oliver a reason to want his father dead, but why kill him now? It’s been years.”

“According to Pike, Oliver was just a child when his mother died and therefore most likely unaware of what was going on. Pike told me that after the police dropped the investigation, Charles met Penelope, and the whole sordid affair was swept under the rug. Two years ago, Oliver and Olivia were involved in an investment scam that resulted in the loss of their home and most of their worldly possessions to bankruptcy. Oliver asked Charles for money but was turned down. Charles felt that a man needed to make his own way.”

“So how does this tie in with Amelia’s death?” I wondered.

“Olivia, apparently, wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so she started digging around in Charles’s past. She figured if she could find some dirt on him, she could use that as leverage to get the money they needed. During her search she found information about the investigation of Amelia’s death and tried to blackmail Charles.”

“Did it work? Did Charles give them the money they needed?”

“No. He told them that their failures weren’t his problem and they needed to figure out their financial mess themselves. According to Pike, Charles threatened to cut Oliver out of his will but never did.”

“So Oliver just recently found out that his father might have killed his mother, giving him a motive, and Olivia wanted Charles’s money to restore her lifestyle and might have found out about the potential change in the will, giving her a motive as well
.”

“Exactly.”

“And the others?”

“It seems that Leroy grew up with the assumption that he’d one day take over for his father, because Oliver showed no interest in the turkeys or the farm. According to Pike, Leroy worked hard for his father for most of his adult life, only to be told by Charles a few years ago that he didn’t intend to leave him the farm as Leroy believed but rather planned to instruct Oliver as estate executor to sell the property upon his death. Leroy was angry, quit his job, and immediately left the property, but according to Pike, Leroy contacted Charles a couple of months ago in an attempt to have him reconsider his position.”

“And did he? Reconsider?”

“Pike says no. He said that Leroy was furious and insisted that Charles owed him for all his years of labor.”

“Okay, so Leroy was angry at his father, which I guess gives him motive as well. If he decided to confront him in person, he could have killed him in a fit of rage. What about the others?”

“
Peggy and her father have been on the outs for years. Pike told me that Charles disinherited Peggy when she married a man her father considered to be beneath his station in life. Peggy hadn’t had any contact with her father since she left home at the age of eighteen until she contacted him three months ago.”

“Why did she contact him after all those years
?”

“Margaret needs surgery to repair a genetic heart defect. It’s not life threatening at this point, but if left unattended it could lead to premature heart disease. Margaret’s physician strongly recommended that the matter be attended to sooner rather than later in order to avoid complications. Peggy wrote to her father
and asked for the money. Pike said that Charles showed him the letter, which in his opinion was both open and heartfelt. She not only explained why she needed the money but apologized for defying him and confessed that she regretted not having him in her life for all those years. He never responded to her.”

“Wow, that’s cold.”

“Pike told me that he tried to convince Charles to give Peggy the money she needed, but when he made his case on Peggy’s behalf, Charles simply said, ‘Peggy who?’”

“What a jerk
.” I couldn’t believe anyone would treat his family quite so horribly, no matter what they’d done. “I hate to even say this, but it sounds like a hell of a motive for murder to me. So what about Brent and Holly?”

“Brent grew up in a dysfunctional family where both parents drank heavily.  He often spent summers at the turkey farm with his grandparents.  While he tended to butt heads with Charles, he adored Lola. According to Pike, Lola actually loved Charles and was devastated when he tossed her aside for the young and beautiful Dolly. Brent resented his grandfather for what he did to his grandmother and distanced himself accordingly, but for some reason, to which Pike was not privy, Brent came to see Charles a week ago. Pike said that Brent’s visit greatly upset Charles, but he refused to talk to him about the encounter, so he doesn’t know exactly what occurred. Pike did say that Charles wasn’t easily ruffled and Brent’s visit left him solemn and agitated, so the discussion they shared must have been significant.”