“Now all you need is a set of fingerprints,” Bennett stated.
“Unfortunately, this guy wore gloves.” Lucy said. “And I’m going to refer to the murderer as a ‘he’ because this crime feels very male to me, but I’m not ruling out the possibility that the killer is a woman.”
James had listened quietly up to this point, but when the friends suddenly began exchanging ideas concerning motive, he cleared his throat and looked sadly at Milla. “Every suspect I come up with is female.” He quickly repeated the conversation he had overheard between Willow, Chloe, and Aunt Wheezie when they were together in the hotel lobby.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time with Willow lately.” Milla’s eyes flashed defiantly. “I cannot see that girl hitting Chase with a shovel and pushing him off a cliff over a month’s salary.”
“Do you have alibis for the three ladies?” Lindy asked Lucy.
“Naturally,” Lucy’s tone was scornful. “They were all getting dressed for the ash scattering. Both the hotel maid and the front desk clerk saw Chloe and Wheezie heading out to Chloe’s rental car, but no one in Willow’s apartment complex noticed her or her car, which is a pretty nondescript compact.”
Milla reached over and grabbed Lucy’s hand. “Willow was in the bed-and-breakfast when Paulette died. She knew how much my sister liked eggnog. One of her jobs was to do errands for Paulette, including grocery shopping. And now you’re saying that she can’t prove where she was this morning?” Milla was clearly distraught. “Despite how things look, I just can’t believe she’s capable of violence…”
“There are many layers to a human being,” Gillian replied softly.
“So what’s her motive? Revenge?” Lindy asked. “Paulette dumped on her one time too many, so after murdering her, Willow gets a taste for it and bumps off Chase next?” She waved her hand dismissively. “Why would she risk her fresh start in Quincy’s Gap? She seemed to be really happy lately.” She turned to James. “You saw her at the firehouse the other night. I noticed she and Francis are getting pretty cozy, and the girl’s talked to everyone who’ll listen about Quincy’s Whimsies. Why would she kill Chase?”
“That’s a good point. She’s become very optimistic,” Milla agreed. “Why, just yesterday she found out that one of the lawyer’s offices downtown is coming up for lease. It’s the perfect size and location for our store, and Willow scheduled a meeting with the building owner for a week from now. She’s pretty sure that’s where we’ll open our doors in a month or two. Does that sound like a murderer?”
Bennett frowned. “It could be an example of that arrogant confidence Lucy talked about. She’s planning her future because she doesn’t think she’ll get caught.”
Lucy cradled her coffee cup between her palms as the rest of the group fell silent, each of them trying to imagine Willow as a murderer.
“Is Paulette’s case officially being reopened?” James inquired.
“Just by me,” Lucy answered tiredly. “There’s no new evidence regarding her case, and this one will keep us all busy. If Chase hadn’t been thrown from the car, we wouldn’t even know about the head wound, but the killer forgot to put his seatbelt on and that’s the only lucky break we’ve had.”
“Ain’t like that shovel’s gonna be easy to find,” Jackson spoke for the first time. “Every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s got at least one. Snow shovels, garden shovels, shovels to use for cleaning the crap out of animal stalls…”
Lucy nodded in agreement. “The park rangers will search the area surrounding the overlook, but the killer could have tossed it in a lake for all we know. No, finding the shovel won’t be how we crack this case. I think the answer lies in the motive. Chase became an extremely wealthy man because of Paulette’s death, but who stood to gain by his abrupt ending?”
“His wife?” Milla guessed.
“We won’t know until we see his will, but I’ve had the opportunity to view Paulette’s, and hers contained an interesting clause.” Lucy paused dramatically. “If anything were to happen to Chase, then the profits from Paulette’s estate would go to Chloe, not to Chase’s wife and children.”
“And Chloe’s in desperate need of money!” James exclaimed, and then grew thoughtful. “But she has a solid alibi for this morning, so unless she was working with someone all along…”
Lindy’s eyes widened. “Like Willow?”
“It’s possible,” Lucy conceded. “Still, there’s no evidence against either woman. These ideas we’re tossing out,” she gestured around the table, “are all circumstantial.”
James glanced at the grim faces of his friends. Noting the resigned slump of Milla’s shoulders, he sighed. “What can we do?”
“We can outsmart the killer!” Lucy shouted, startling everyone. “Look at us! We’ve brought wicked people to justice before, and we’re not going to back down now!” She lowered her voice. “I know this case is tough, but I will not have this person or persons get the better of us. I won’t stand for it. This is our town.”
Rephrasing his previous question so that it formed a statement, James said, “Tell us what to do.”
“Go back to the days preceding Paulette’s death,” she commanded. “I want a timeline of everything she did, every place she went, every person she insulted.” Lucy gave Milla an imploring look. “Can you do that?”
“Of course, dear,” Milla answered without hesitation.
“The key to this riddle lies with Paulette’s death. I’m sure of it.” Lucy put her palm over her heart. “I feel it. Once James, Jackson, and Milla finish that timeline, the rest of you are going to be my foot soldiers. You’re going to get every ounce of gossip, hearsay, or eyewitness accounts regarding Paulette’s movements before she was poisoned. Are you willing to be relentless in pursuing the truth?”
“Oh, yes! Your passion is absolutely inspiring!” Gillian seized Lucy’s hand.
“This isn’t passion. This is anger,” Lucy answered heatedly. “I missed something the first time, and my mistake has cost Chase Martin his life. I didn’t like him. I doubt that many people did, but did he deserve to have his head bashed in, to be pushed off a cliff?”
“No one deserves such an end,” Milla whispered.
“Exactly!” Lucy raised her voice again. “And we’re running out of time! We can only detain Chloe and Wheezie for so long. I believe Chase knew the person who killed him. I think he was mighty surprised to see a shovel in that person’s hands. But who did he meet on that overlook? Why did he get there early? I need to know what we missed in Paulette’s case that can answer those questions.”
James and Milla exchanged determined looks. “We’ll start right now,” he vowed.
“And we’ll clean up the kitchen!” Gillian offered and pulled on Bennett’s arm. “Let’s go, mister. You’re on wash detail.”
Spluttering, Bennett followed in her wake as Lindy collected dishes from the table.
James fetched a notebook from his work bag, poured himself a large mug of coffee, and prepared for a late night. “I’m ready,” he told Lucy. “Let’s find that piece of the puzzle and end this thing for good.”
FOURTEEN
In spite of how late he, Milla, and Jackson had stayed up the night before, James was alert and animated at work the following day. His Realtor had called just as he was turning on the lights in his office, asking if the closing could be moved up to that evening. It seemed the sellers wanted to attend a friend’s birthday party on the afternoon it had originally been scheduled and would be eternally grateful if James were willing to take ownership of the house a few days early.